Emerging
by Wedjatqi
Summary: Atlantis has returned to Pegasus and all seems well until something new appears in the city, which will possibly forever alter John's view of his future. Written for the 2010 Beya Secret Elf Exchange. JT. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

**Emerging Part 1**

Warnings: Set post Season 5

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of the Stargate World and make no profit from this, other than general enjoyment.

**Comment**: This fic was written for the 2010 Beya Secret Elf Exchange. This was my gift for Wikked Angel 78, that was delivered in 4 small gifts (chapters) and then the rest as the finall Christmas/New Year gift. It is a complete fic, in 8 chapters, and so I'll post up a couple at a time. The complete fic can be found at the Beya LJ though, and I'll get round to putting it on my LJ too. I hope everyone had a very merry christmas and is having a fabulous New Year. Welcome 2011!

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"_Many say that there is no purpose to life, no meaning to our existence. That we live in a harsh and unforgiving Universe that was as unforgiving on the Ancient races as it is upon our own. There is no order, no destiny. _

"_Stars are born and they die, giving life and then taking it away. Planets turn with no purpose, no meaning. Mountains rise up to the sky to be weathered back down again, tides swell and then retreat, climates freeze and then boil. Time flows ever onwards, unforgiving, unrelenting, and uncaring. _

"_What is a human life compared to that?"_

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Atlantis sat comfortably on the ocean, returned once again to its home. The night air was cool against John's face as he leant his hip against the balcony railing. It wasn't the same view as he had enjoyed for the last 6 months back on Earth, it was infinitely better. He drew in a deep breath of cool air, the sense of accomplishment still strong.

Home.

It was odd that he thought that really, since wasn't Earth home?

He frowned out at the dark expanse of sea. He had loved being back on Earth, enjoying the blending of the thrill of being in Atlantis, with being back 'home'. However, as was probably inevitable, the politics had kicked in and suddenly the fun of being back had been ruined. John had found himself on the verge of being transferred, his team broken up, and his best people being reassigned out across the planet, and he had realised that Earth had somehow, long ago stopped being 'home'.

Being here in Pegasus, it gave a sense of freedom, a new way of working that wasn't quite military and it wasn't quite IOA. It was an amalgamation. A way of doing things that he, Elizabeth, Colonel Carter, and even Woolsey had all formed over the years. Everyone in the city had all become something like an extended family all working together for a common goal, not fighting with each other and squabbling over titbits like the politicians back on Earth. Here in Pegasus, there was freedom from that. Well, some, he admitted, since even the gulf between the two galaxies wasn't quite enough distance to get away from the politics entirely.

John was happy to be back here, back in a galaxy full of Wraith, all hell-bent on killing everyone in Atlantis and feeding on all the humans in Pegasus.

Not for the first time did John wonder about his values.

When had being away from the comfort of cars, movie theatres, and fighter jets become 'home'?

When did he prefer to be stood out on a dark balcony when his duty shift had ended well over an hour ago?

He glanced down at his watch, realising how late it was getting. Tomorrow would hold another long duty shift in a galaxy that was far more dangerous than the one in which he had been born.

The rest of his team would all be in bed, probably all snuggled up in someone else's arms, while here he stood alone, all contemplative and happy to be back in Pegasus.

Maybe there was something wrong with him he mused.

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It began in an empty room.

A vacant room, abandoned for so many centuries. Just a large empty space, absent of anything to distinguish it except that it was on the highest level of one of the furthest buildings on one pier of the Ancient City of Atlantis.

Nothing had disturbed the room since those ancient days. A large empty room, that anyone passing would not consider interesting. There were no windows, no furniture, no consoles, and no locks. Just an empty abandoned space.

The air inside the room was still, unmoving since there was no open window, no small hidden creatures living out their lives in the corner shadows. Nothing to stir the air.

The one single door remained shut, yet still something changed inside the room.

At the centre of the space, surrounded by still air above, below and around it, the tiniest flicker and sparkle of light began.

Unseen and unheard.

00000  
TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Emerging Part 2**

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"_Perhaps it is true that we all enter into our lives alone, a single entity that must breathe by itself or die. We must all live our lives, walk our own path, speak our words, and take the actions that we deem correct for us. Whether we take those actions for good or ill is always our choice, and therefore the consequences upon others are our choice as well. For we are never alone. To those that say we are born alone, cold and screaming, I say that no one is born without a Mother. There are always those around us; those who love us, who like us, dismiss us, or perhaps even hate us. _

_No being exists alone. _

_Except perhaps for me…for now at least." _

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Her dream began as any other.

In the depth of the night, in her sleeping mind she was wandering through endless, confusing corridors of a Wraith Hive, cold plaguing her deep in her belly. Worries, fears, remembered and imagined, occupying the fluid experience of her dream. At times, others were with her, her team or unknown warriors of which she does not notice much detail. Torren is in her arms at one point, crying and fearful as she struggles to find a way out for them both.

Then, hallways become a dart bay, her arms are empty, and she is now struggling to work out how to fly a Jumper. In an abrupt moment of logic in the disjointed nature of dreams, she remembers that she is unable to fly the Ancestral ships and wonders why she thought she could. So, she slips back out the hatch to return to wandering through the confusing corridors, unclear even where she is hoping to go or what she needs to achieve.

To her right, a new companion appears, slipping into the dream narrative, and she accepts the young girl's presence without question – an old childhood friend from Athos. A young friend who was taken by the Wraith during the same culling that had taken Teyla's father from her.

In the dream, Teyla does not recall the girl's name, but accepts her presence, the two of them sneaking around the Hive as they had done around the camp when they were young and supposed to have been at their chores.

A doorway leads them into a forest, and they are once again running through the trees having escaped the camp and any demanding adult attention. They were always told never to run off into the forest, but they always did.

Teyla paused and breathed in the scent of the flowers and damp bark of the trees around them. As she looked up, she focused on the trees. They do not look as she remembers them. These are taller, straighter, and the leaves are unusual. As she turns, she sees more that seems wrong and an unnerving feel enters the dream. This was not the forest in which she had played as a child. This is not a forest she has ever visited before.

Her friend, Deyn she now recalls her name to have been, runs off ahead, scrambling through foliage and out of view. Teyla rushes after her, the confusion and concern dimming somewhat in the return of play. Yet, as she breaks through the thick foliage herself, the air cooler and the dusk abruptly having arrived, she stops. Ahead of her, set through the thinning trees, she sees a building. A square house, constructed using complete logs, bolted together at the corners. A thin stream of smoke is trailing up from the square chimney set on the sharply angled wooden roof. The scent of the smoke seems wrong to her, emanating from a wood she has never smelt burn before.

Moving towards the house, drawn towards it set among the forest, the daylight lowers further, causing the light coming through the perfectly square windows of the house to seem brighter. As she nears closer still, the light seems to grow brighter and as she watches the glow it seems to hold sounds; bright distant laughter of happy children, the rushing noise of the Stargate activating, the crackle of a warm fire on a dark cold night, and then a restrained wail of grief.

Night falls completely as she reaches the short path that leads to the closed front door. As she moves along the path, drawn towards the closed doorway, part of her wants to shrink back as if she already knows what she will find behind the door and does not want to face it. Yet, at the same time, she can do nothing but move forward, for what is on the other side of the wooden door means so much to her, and so she moves cautiously towards the closed door.

As she nears it, the small stones of the path crunching under her boots, she somehow senses that there is someone on the other side of the door. She knows they are aware of her on the other side. She hears clicks and the scrape of a bolt being drawn back.

A faint line appears along the edge of the doorframe as the door opens a fraction. Light pours out through the crack and with it all she had felt before. Yet, it is stronger now, washing over her and overwhelming her.

She lifts her hands up to ward off the light, but through it she sees the door finally be thrown wide open and a form stands before her. She knows who it is, but somehow that knowledge is too much and the light engulfs her entirely.

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Teyla snapped awake, a cry of loss and grief whimpering from her throat. The overwhelming sensations of the dream still filled her senses, but as soon as she draws a deep breath and feels the touch her hand against her mouth, the feelings begin to die away. Like a song no longer playing, it drifts away, even the memory of it becoming fainter, unclear, and barely a fraction of the original experience.

Though the details of the dream are retreating, she notices that her hands are still trembling as she pushes back her bedcovers and sits up, swinging her legs round to sit on the side of her bed.

Breathing in deeply, her eyes tightly closed, she worked through her calming techniques that were so much a part of her now, that simply deciding to use them already brings her a sense of centre again.

With a calmer, more awake mind, she opened her eyes again to her dark quarters. Across the room, Torren's new larger cot stood in partial faint moonlight. Through the gaps between the slats that made up the tall sides of the cot, she could see Torren lying on his back, but instead of being fast asleep, he was looking out at her, his expression seeming worried.

She smiled at him, tilting her head so that they could look at each other easier, but a tiny frown appeared across his forehead. She wondered if he had been grizzling, unable to sleep, and the noise had worried her in her sleep. Maybe that concern for him had entered her dream in such a strange way as to wake her up.

She got up from the bed and quietly walked across the room towards his cot, smiling down at him reassuringly. As she reached the side of the cot, she leant over the side and reached in to lay one hand on his middle, which he usually found calming. However, he simply watched her, not seeming all that unhappy or distressed.

She rubbed his tummy, needing to reassure him somehow, as she was aware that though she felt calmer, the dream continued to leave her feeling unnerved. She searched inside herself, reaching towards the part of her that sensed the Wraith, but she felt nothing there. There were no Wraith in the city or near it that she could tell, so that was not what was unnerving her. It must simply be the after-effects of a particularly strange dream.

She smiled again down at Torren, but he continued to stare up at her, his expression almost confused. So, she reached down and picked up him. She settled him in her arm on her hip, reaching back down for his blanket, wrapping it around his back against the slight night chill of the room. He settled against her comfortably, seeming unworried, but she swayed with him, rubbing his back for reassurance. Though, more truthfully, the reassuring cuddle was more for her benefit than his.

She turned and looked back towards her bed to see Kanaan's form dark and still on the far side. He hadn't heard her awake or moving around. Part of her felt the need for comfort, for reassurance of some kind, but she did not know why. She felt sad, worried, and almost nervous, but for no clear reason. She could perhaps wake Kanaan, or make enough noise to 'accidentally' wake him up, but she knew she would not. Kanaan was not one she went to for reassurance, and even if he could offer kind calming words, for some reason it was clear to her that she did not want his company on this matter.

Frowning at her thoughts, and at her clear wakefulness, she moved away from the cot towards the window. She would have liked to have lit some candles and sat with Torren, but that would likely wake Kanaan, so instead she moved towards the window's light. She would pull back the curtain enough to allow in enough moonlight and then sit in the nearby chair with Torren in her arms.

She reached the window and tugged aside the curtain, revealing the wide view of the dark ocean, two piers, and the edge of the city. Most of the city was dark, except for the limited light glowing down from higher up the main tower. The faint light mixed with the moonlight to give a dull illumination for her to look out at the ocean.

Torren almost asleep against her, she simply stood and watched the ocean and city. This view always calmed her and she allowed herself to enjoy the beauty before her.

A light caught her eye at the far end of the pier to her right. She looked out towards the far end of the pier at the tiny pinpoint of light that had attracted her attention. It was very late for someone to be up, let alone so far out along the pier. She wondered what they were doing and why so late.

The light grew a little brighter as she kept her gaze upon it, almost fixated by it. There was something odd about it, she realised, but she was not sure what it was. It was likely that there was simply some repair work being done out there, or perhaps someone out in a far room turning on lights for some reason.

She kept watching though, and after some long moments, she realised what was odd about the light.

Whereas all the other lights of Atlantis, and she moved closer to the window to spy some of them below, were all of a golden yellow colour in the night, the far light was of a bright white.

She watched as the light seemed to flicker and grow brighter.

She moved even closer to the window and frowned at the light. There was a pulsing quality to it, a subtle steady increase in the light's intensity and it seemed to be stretching out further. A bright, glowing light…like in her dream.

Then abruptly, the light seemed to explode. This time it was not a sensation, full of emotion and dreamed feelings, this time she felt the force of the explosion, felt the glass of the window shake with it. She turned, bending protectively over Torren in her arms as she turned her back to the potential danger.

However, the window held and she realised the explosion had held barely any noise, but already she could hear shouting over her radio earpiece, sat way across the room from her.

Standing up straight again, she turned back towards the window.

At the far end of the pier, the top edge of a building was missing and in its place the bright white light was glowing, shinning out into the dark night, whilst throughout the city tiny golden lights were flickering to life.

0000000  
TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Emerging Part 3**

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John was still buttoning up his jacket as he rounded the corner towards the rapidly filling transporter. Uncaring, he rushed inside, forcing space for himself just inside the doors before they shut. Practically crushed against the doors as they closed, he jabbed at his earpiece again.

"Talk to me, Chuck," he demanded.

"We're still not getting anything, Sir," Chuck replied hurriedly over the radio link.

John waited the beat it took for the transporter to flash brightly through the tiny compartment before he replied. As the doors began opening in his face, he turned and slid through them into the corridor beyond.

"The end of the pier exploded, how can you not be getting anything?" He asked as he turned the corridor to see a scruffily dressed Rodney stood among two teams of heavily armed Marines before a sealed door.

"We detected a few second burst of energy before the explosion, but nothing since," Chuck replied, sounding confused himself.

John hurried down the corridor, and resisted the urge to make a joking comment about Rodney's bed-hair as he arrived by the scientist's side.

"Rodney, what's going on?"

"He's right," Rodney replied, his voice gruff from his disturbed sleep. "I'm not reading any energy on the other side of the door."

"How can that be? The end of the pier's lit up like a Christmas tree," John argued.

"Look, give me a minute, I just got here too, you know," Rodney complained as he jabbed buttons on the tablet in his hand and then shifted to the modified Ancient detector. "No radiation, no signals, no life signs, no hyperspace window, nothing, but the tiniest energy reading."

"So there's something," John latched onto that fact as he looked at the sealed normal door before them, which the city had automatically sealed at detecting the explosion in the room beyond.

"There's something, but you'd be hard pressed to run a light bulb off of it," Rodney muttered. He lowered the tablet. "We need to get in there."

"Is it safe to?"

Rodney shrugged, his sleepy eyes clearing with the knowledge that he would be the one to go in there. "There's no radiation, no heat, so it should be okay." John didn't think Rodney sounded all that confident in his own assessment.

John frowned back towards the innocuous sealed door. "You're sure it's safe?"

Rodney looked at the door himself, his expression going through its familiar set of emotions that after five years in the same team, John could now read like a book. First there was Rodney's faith in his assessment skills, then the realisation that it would be Rodney himself on the line going through that door, which was followed by fear at the thought that he might be wrong or that something could happen, but then he would nearly always work his way back to the fact that he believed in his own genius.

"It should be safe," Rodney replied. "Though maybe we should wear radiation suits, just in case there's something we missed." And there was the caution that helped tame Rodney's arrogance, an element that hadn't always been there in the first years in the city. After blowing up a solar system, even Rodney had had to kerb his self-believe in his abilities.

"Great, the plastic suits. I love that look," John muttered, glad to have a plan though, a small one, but a plan nonetheless.

He turned and gave the order for the suits to someone behind him and as they turned away to carry out his order, down the corridor Teyla and Ronon appeared, both hurrying towards him and Rodney.

"John, what is happening?" Teyla asked. It struck John that she looked tired, but then Torren was young still and she had the odd night when she was kept up by him. Except, there was a hallow quality to her eyes tonight that gave John a moment of concern.

"We're heading in to find out," he replied gesturing to the closed door.

Teyla looked past him to the door.

"We're with you," Ronon said.

"No, we'll keep it just Rodney and me for now," John replied instantly, which only after he said the words did he realise it had been an odd reaction. He should have all his team in there with him. Ronon and Teyla both looked surprised at the order. "We have no idea what's in there," he added by way of an explanation. They would agree, but in truth he wasn't sure why instinctively he didn't want anyone else beyond that door. He had taken his team into far more dangerous and unknown situations – why was this any different?

The suits arrived at this point and as John took his, he remembered how much he _really_ hated wearing them. As he put one foot and then the other into the rubber pants, over the radio Zelenka joined in the discussion on the lack of energy readings.

"I've made absolutely certain, Rodney," Radek argued with more than a touch of annoyance in his tone. "There are no breaks in the city's energy system and there is no power beyond your position."

John pulled the rubber pants part of the suit up over his hips, securing it closed around his waist and already he felt hot and uncomfortable.

"What's that mean?" Ronon asked Rodney.

Rodney looked up from where he too was securing closed the side of his suit. "It means that the faint readings I'm getting from beyond the door aren't coming from a broken conduit or something. The power's not coming from the city."

"Where's it coming from then?" Ronon asked.

John saw Rodney take a breath to deliver his sarcastic reply to that question, so John decided to interrupt to stop a delaying argument or lecture.

"Hopefully we'll have a clue in a few minutes," John interrupted and there was enough pointed emphasis in his tone for Rodney to focus back on pulling on his suit properly.

John lifted the front of his suit and pushed one arm into the sleeve, but as he was settling it over his shoulder, a warm hand touched against his free arm. The soft touch surprised him and he looked round to see Teyla had stepped up next to him. Her attention was directed towards the door, but her hand tightened against his forearm.

"John, I think there is something very wrong about this," she uttered with a light frown across her forehead.

"Sure, we lost the end of the building," he replied by way of immediate explanation and to help the sudden worry that flared up in him. She was right – he too had a bad feeling about this, but again he had to wonder about that, because he had sure been in worse situations that this. Of course, even the most simple mission could turn south abruptly, but again he was used to that possibility, as was Teyla.

Normally he would have offered her another lightly delivered comment designed to calm anyone listening and to reassure her that all was in hand, yet, the touch of her hand – warm and secure against his arm, a touch she rarely shared with him - he found himself frowning at her worried look.

"Why, what's wrong?" He asked.

She frowned, her attention shifting inward. He recognised that look; it was the same one she used when she was sensing the Wraith.

"You're not sensing Wraith involved with this, are you?" He asked worriedly, even though he knew she would report anything like that.

She paused before she answered and in that pause, John kept his gaze locked on her beautiful face, which in his opinion was just as attractive when sporting a deep frown. Her hand remained on his arm, against his bare skin and he was achingly aware of the continuing contact.

"No, but, there is something…" she sighed and her hand fell away from his arm, leaving a cold patch of his skin behind.

John distracted himself away from that loss by sliding his arm into his radiation suit and pulling it up and around his middle. Helpful hands behind him assisted in sealing the suit for him, and Ronon stood close, holding the helmet for him, but John kept his attention on Teyla.

"What is it?" He asked her.

She finally looked at him, breaking her eyes sharply away from the door as if it had been difficult to look away. She leant slightly closer to him, and taking the hint for privacy, he leant in closer as well.

"I dreamt of this, John," she whispered quietly, her gaze moving back to the door.

For a moment, a stupid heartfelt moment, John's mind jumped to her meaning them stood so close, her body warmth so much closer than normal. God, he had to get a handle on this thing. His attraction to her had been growing over the years, even with Kanaan and Torren on the scene. He normally had a good control of it, but perhaps because it was late, that he was tired, and she had touched him, had all stirred up these feelings in him. Feelings that ended up with him feeling guilty at thinking of her that way when she was with another guy, and at berating himself for having missed his chance before Kanaan had arrived.

He pulled his wandering thoughts and feelings away from that split second of distraction, and back onto her words, as he clamped a tight hold on his wayward emotions and sealed them up.

"You dreamt of this?" He repeated back to her, now realising how odd her comment really was.

"Of a bright shining light," she said, but her voice seemed less steady as if she wasn't so sure of herself now. "I remember a house in a forest, the light, and a presence."

Five years ago, John would have dismissed something like that, but this was Teyla and they were in Pegasus. He had learnt never to discount anything out of hand.

"You sensing this presence now?" He asked.

She turned fully back towards the door, leaning back away from him again as she did, which made the air around him a touch colder again. She held still for a moment, Rodney's mutterings at holding his tablet and the handheld Ancient device with his plastic-covered hands filled the quiet moment in which she focused inside.

She shook her head and it was with a sighed smile of frustration that she looked back to John. "No, I do not sense anything now. Perhaps, I confused images from my dream with the light I saw."

John held her gaze for a moment, adding the information into the mix. "Well, if anything changes, let us know." She smiled at him, which was her way of acknowledging that he was accepting her unusual intell.

"Be careful in there," she said and for a moment John thought she was going to reach out and touch him again, which wouldn't have felt the same through the suit, but he wouldn't have minded.

She frowned and looked briefly down at her hand as if she too realised that she had been about to reach out to him again, but she looked away quickly, turning to address Rodney as well.

"Both of you, be careful in there," she said.

Rodney had his helmet on already and John almost did a double take at the sunglasses Rodney was wearing inside the helmet.

"It's bright in there," Rodney explained.

A pair of sunglasses appeared within John's view and he looked round to see Ronon holding them out to him. John took them. They were thicker and wider than he usually liked to wear, but they would probably work better beyond the door away. He slipped them on and then took his helmet from Ronon, and took a breath of air before he pulled on the confining helmet.

"Right, let's do this," John declared, his voice echoing back to him within the helmet.

"Everyone pull back to the next door down," Lorne was ordering behind John, and John turned to watch, in strange dark vision, as Teyla and Ronon pulled back with the others.

John waited until everyone disappeared behind the door down the corridor and the doors slid shut. He found his attention locked on the small sliver of Teyla he could see through the press of people watching, until the doors shut, leaving him and Rodney alone. He turned back to the door before them.

Rodney was already working on the door control. "I'm ready here," Rodney reported.

"We're ready to open the door," John reported, hefting the P90 that had supplied with his suit, just in case.

"Keep this line open," Mr Woolsey's voice arrived in John's ear. The guy had finally joined them all in the Control Room it seemed.

John nodded to Rodney, but of course the movement was lost through the helmet and Rodney had his attention turned to the door controls anyway.

"Open it, Rodney," he ordered out loud instead.

The doors slid open to reveal the corridor stretching out ahead of them, which lead straight towards a glowing white light.

"You getting anything now?" John asked Rodney.

"Still the tiny reading from before," Rodney replied, his tone full of the frown that John couldn't see.

"Let's get closer and have a look at it then," John suggested.

"You're assuming it's an 'it'," Rodney muttered as they both began a slow pace forward.

"You find a proper name for it and I'll call 'it' that," John replied, knowing the banter helped Rodney.

"What do you see?" Woolsey asked over the radio.

"The light is shining down the corridor ahead of us," John reported, having to squint slightly, even with the dark glasses. "It's bright, but there's no heat to it."

"Can you see the source of it?"

"The tiny reading I'm getting is in the centre of the room ahead of us," Rodney reported.

"The doorway to the room is open, the frame looks warped," John added as they cautiously approached the doorway.

As they reached it, John looked up through the frame to see the dark night sky above. "The ceiling is missing, as we expected, as are the walls beyond the door."

"But, it left the floor," Rodney added.

John looked down at the floor beyond the doorway to see that Rodney was right, the floor was still there, at least as far as he could see towards the bright centre of the room.

"The explosion must have been directed up and outwards," John considered out loud as he crouched down to look at the floor more closely. "A directed explosion."

"A weapon?" Woolsey considered.

John frowned at the immaculate floor. "Rodney, look at this." Rodney crouched down next to him. "There's no sign of any explosion here, no burns, no scratches, nothing. The floor's clean."

"How can that be?" Woolsey asked.

"I suppose if the explosion was directed precisely…" Rodney considered, but he didn't sound convinced himself.

"And there's no debris," John added as he gestured to the limited amount of floor he could see. "Nothing left of the walls or ceiling. I've never seen an explosion like this before."

"If it was hot enough there might be nothing left," Rodney replied.

"But there would be something left, even if it was just dust," John argued as he stood up again and turned, looking up at the inside wall above the doorway. There was still part of the ceiling stretching out from above it, but it ended in a precise semi-circular cut. "It looks like the light took a bite out of the building," John considered.

They edged slightly further into the room, but John paused, drawn to look up at the night sky above them. Stars sparkled high overhead past the bright glow of the strange light. It struck him that it was like camping when he was younger. Lying by a campfire, the light of which shone against the darkness, but never able to interrupt the sight of the beautiful vastness of the night sky above. He drew a breath, almost as if he expected to smell wood smoke on the air, but of course, all he got was the recycled air within the suit.

He broke his eyes away from the sky above, the strange little moment having passed. He pulled his attention back on the very vital situation and had to wonder why he had gone all nostalgic all of a sudden.

Rodney had moved ahead, which worried John as he had both missed that fact and that Rodney was getting closer to the obvious centre of the light in the middle of the room.

"Careful, Rodney," John warned belatedly.

Rodney looked up and round from his tablet and then back down to its readings. "If this is right, then the epicentre of all this is tiny," he reported.

"It looks pretty bright from here," John replied, moving slightly forward as well.

"Are you reading anything more now, Doctor McKay?" Woolsey asked.

"There's been no increase in output, but now I'm closer I'm getting more detail on the readings." There was puzzlement to Rodney's tone.

"What're you getting?" He asked.

"It's almost like…" Rodney began, but suddenly the brightness of the light altered. "Wow! Rodney exclaimed from where he was watching his tablet. From where John was standing he could see the all the lights flashing on the screen.

"What is it?" He asked hurried, but his attention shifted to the light source itself, which dimmed, only to brighten again.

"It's fluctuating," Rodney reported.

John lifted one suit-covered hand to block the intensity of the light.

"Are you in any danger?" Woolsey asked loudly over the radio.

"This can't be right?" Rodney muttered.

"Dr McKay?" Woolsey all but shouted.

John looked at the back of Rodney's shoulder, ready to grab him and pull him out of the room away from the increasing pulse of the light.

The brightness hurt John's eyes this time and he had to look away. Scrunching up his eyes against the light, he held his hand further out to block as much as he could to shield his eyes.

The sudden silhouette of his hand against the bright light caught his attention strangely and he was struck by the moment that felt oddly familiar.

Noise around him seemed to merge with the light, as if remembered voices were shouting at him, but he held fast against the natural urge to run. There was time, there _had_ to be time.

The pulse of light grew brighter behind his hand and John's focus returned, once again leaving him feeling he had been distracted and had missed something.

"The readings are spiking!" Rodney shouted loudly, which seemed necessary against the intensity of the light.

The centre of the brightness abruptly grew, the move sudden, and John had a split second to brace himself. However, there was no following explosion, in fact what he felt was the exact opposite. There was no rush of unleashed power, instead he felt as if the air in front of him had become weaker and he stumbled forward without its support.

"It's expanded," Rodney yelled through the radio, the sound loud in the confines of John's suit, as was the heat and stress of his body.

"I can see that!" John shouted back, his entire arm up in front of him to block his eyes from the pulsing light.

"Do you think you need to get out of that section?" Woolsey asked worriedly.

"Rodney-?" John asked, demanded.

"It's spiking again," Rodney warned before John had gotten his question out.

This time, John pulled himself back, ready for the pull forwards, and as the light source expanded again, he felt the sense of weakness in front of him again, but he kept his feet under him this time.

"We need to get out of here," John shouted, reaching towards Rodney.

Over his outstretched arm, as the light pulsed lower before another brighter pulse, he caught a glimpse of the light source again, and where before it had seemed maybe the size of a football, now it was a good metre across. Fear like he hadn't felt in a long time crawled up in his throat.

He grabbed harshly at Rodney's arm and pulled him roughly backwards past him, shoving him back towards the doorway that led the way out of here. John was aware of Rodney complaining, but he didn't care, he ran with Rodney towards the doorway. That the light was now behind them didn't seem to help much, because it was shining off all surfaces, flooding John's vision.

A pulling sensation at his back told him the light source had expanded again, but further away from it, he hadn't felt it as strongly. But, he kept pushing at Rodney's back, driving them both from the room and down the corridor again. Some of John's higher thinking cut in again at this point.

"We're retreating back," he shouted into the radio.

The light around them somehow grew more intense and he felt the pull at his back again.

They reached the open doorway they had started this excursion through and once through, John waved his hand over the door sensor.

Turned towards the doors as they closed, he had a glimpse of the light source again, which seemed to now fill the far room, but the sight was blissfully cut short by the doors closing between John and the far light filled room.

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TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**Emerging Part 4**

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Teyla stepped aside to allow another group of scientists to wheel a console into the newly established lab down the length of the pier from the bright light source. The console past her, Teyla continued towards the tall floor to ceiling windows that lined one wall of the busy room.

Pressing close to the glass, she peered as far to the right along the building as she could, and could just see the edge of the light source. Behind her, people were talking in hurried confused overlapping conversations, all struggling to understand what was occurring at the end of the pier.

Teyla, however, stood still and simply studied the light. Looking at it now, she was again struck by the similarity to her dream. She worked to recall what she could of that dream. She remembered walking towards the closed door, knowing that there was life, laughter, and warmth on the other side of it. And that presence.

She worked to try and find that presence again now, sinking deep inside as if she were seeking a Wraith. There was no cold there though, no crawling sensation that she associated with Wraith. Nothing.

It was in drawing up from that depth within her when the presence finally registered. It was so brief and light, almost like having caught a fleeting movement in the corner of your eye. She focused back down into herself, moving gradually through her mental routine she used to access her gift. Then, again, the slightest sense, which if she had not been looking for it she would have missed it. She worked to focus on it, her eyes almost watering as she stared so intently at the light outside.

Holding the most delicate of focuses she held onto the sensation, struggling in doing so, just as it had been back when she had first begun to learn to use her Gift. Just when she believed she had a link formed it slipped away again. Her sense of the presence was so fragile, barely present, but the longer she worked at holding the sense of it, the more convinced she was that it truly existed.

"Teyla?"

John's quiet concerned question broke her concentration and drew her awareness to the fact that she stood all but pressed up to the window, starring towards the light. She pulled herself back from the glass, her focus having been lost, but she had sensed enough. She looked round and up at John.

"There is definitely a presence there, John. I am sure of it now," she told him.

John frowned worriedly away from her out the window and then back to her. "You still sure it's not Wraith?"

"I am almost certain it is not," she replied, praying that she was right. The sense of the presence was wrong for a Wraith, with no cold feeling, no overriding hunger and animosity that was a part of every Wraith mind she had felt before.

"And it's definitely coming from the light source?" He asked.

"It seems to be, yes," she replied.

"Can you communicate with it?"

She frowned and looked out the window towards the light again. "It is difficult to focus to sense the presence clearly enough. As if it is barely there, or an echo bouncing around barely loud enough for me to sense it," she replied.

She frowned at her own explanation, unsure even what she meant, only that it accurately described the sensation of sensing the strange presence. She looked round at John again with an apologetic smile.

He looked away from her to the window, the new light faint across his features. He frowned, the expression strained, more so than she would have expected given this situation.

"What is it, John?" She found herself asking, turning herself away from the window to face him.

He seemed to pull out of whatever place his mind had wandered and he gave her a strained smile. "Nothing, I just wish I'd gotten more than a couple of hours sleep before all this kicked in."

She nodded with a smile, but knew somehow that he was not being entirely truthful. There was something bothering him, and though she felt inclined to push him today, she held back, as she nearly always did. John was very much a closed book most of the time, only allowing deeper insight into him occasionally at times of great strife or during rare moments of quiet friendly companionship. Those moments were few and far between, and it meant that the gulf of deeper knowledge of him at times frustrated her, for she felt deeply connected with him. Yet, that connection was based on little that she could fix upon, it was a feeling of hers that at times she had felt could have led to more between them. That had never occurred and she had faced the fact that she had set more on that perceived connection with him than was truly there. Yet, at times, as now, she felt the natural compulsion to seek out his deeper self, as if she had the right to, that he was more to her than simply a friend.

Those thoughts surprised her, arriving so abruptly at such a moment. She redirected her attention onto the matter at hand and away from the raw sense of feelings for him that she thought she had come to terms with a long time ago.

"Report, Doctor McKay," Mr Woolsey requested loudly as he entered the lab across the room.

Rodney stood behind a semicircle of glowing Ancient consoles, and before them stood a device, which his team had been hurriedly constructing.

"We're almost there," Rodney replied, most of his attention still on the consoles.

Beside him, Radek looked up towards the approaching city leader. Teyla, along with John, turned away from the windows and moved across the room to join them.

"We are still analysing the data Rodney collected from his and Colonel Sheppard's previous…interaction with the light source," Radek reported.

"Any conclusions yet?" Mr Woolsey asked with clear growing impatience. Teyla could understand the frustration. It was still the middle of the night, all of them tired and in need of rest, and the current crisis seemed to hold no explanation thus far.

"We are certain that the light source is not emitting any radiation or damaging material of any kind," Radek replied. "We are also fairly certain that it is not Wraith in origin, or like anything we have encountered before now. In fact," Radek waved his hands down at the laptop sat before him. "We have no frame of reference for this. We've seen nothing like this before."

Rodney looked up at that point. "Let's not over dramatise things. The problem is that the source is not emitting anything we can detect to identify, which is why we have no clue what it is."

"That's not all that helpful, Doctor McKay," Mr Woolsey pointed out.

"It tells us it's not a hyperspace window or anything that's likely to be exploding any time soon," Rodney replied.

"It's expanding though," John added.

"Actually its expansion is minute," Radek replied before Rodney could. "The light seems to be filling more space, but the actual source has barely grown outside of the original room."

"Which tells us nothing," Rodney interrupted. "What we need to do is find out what it is with this," he said as he gestured to the gun-like device stood on an A frame before him. "With this we will be able to finally get some proper data."

"We do have some data," Radek said turning to Rodney as he again gestured down to the laptop. "You brought back enough to suggest…"

"Look we have no idea if those readings are accurate," Rodney argued back.

"What did those readings show?" Teyla asked, eager for information.

Rodney glanced at her and she could see immediately that he was uncomfortable with the answer to her question. "We really can't be sure at this point."

"Make your best guess, Doctor," Mr Woolsey pushed.

"There did appear to be some temporal qualities to the readings I managed to capture," Rodney admitted reluctantly. "But those readings were pretty faint and we can't be sure that they were accurate," he added hastily.

Teyla looked round the group seeing the pulled faces and discomfort, especially from John beside her. She looked back to Rodney. "You are saying that this might be related to time travel of some sort?"

"We can't be sure of that at all at this stage," Radek replied. "It may be that the readings have another explanation."

"Is it dangerous?" Mr Woolsey asked, cutting to the basic question that concerned them all.

"At the moment it's hardly grown, so other than having lost that room, which wasn't all that interesting in the first place, so far no," Rodney replied.

"Of course, we have no idea what it is yet, and therefore no idea how much danger it could present to the city," Radek added.

"Teyla's reported she senses a presence in the light," John reported to the group, turning slightly towards her as he did. All eyes snapped to her.

"What kind of presence?" Mr Woolsey asked her.

"It is not Wraith, but it does seem familiar in some way," she reported as she returned her senses to seeking out the presence again. "It is ever so faint and I am unable to make contact or understand anything from it." She felt rather frustrated that she had no more to report than that.

Mr Woolsey looked towards the two Doctors. "Is there any chance this could be some sort of wormhole or portal of some kind that someone is using to enter the city?"

"We do not have any data to support that theory, if it is a portal of some kind, it is unlike any that we have seen," Radek replied.

"Could it be a new type of life form?" A scientist asked from across the room.

Rodney frowned in the direction of the question. "I doubt it."

"Again, we have no way of knowing," Radek replied more formally.

Mr Woolsey looked back to her. "Keep us informed of anything new you sense, Teyla," he asked her. She nodded her agreement.

"Okay, so what next?" John asked Rodney.

"We set up my newly constructed and highly complicated device up outside the reach of the light source and it will send a beam of-" Rodney replied, gesturing to the device in front of him of which he was clearly very proud, despite its rather ramshackle appearance, which presumably was due to its hasty construction.

"Then let's get to it," Mr Woolsey had interrupted though.

Looking rather thrown by the interruption to his speech, Rodney frowned, but wisely decided not to argue and waved his science team towards the device. Teyla stood back as they collected up tablets and together began rolling the new device across the room towards the open exit that would lead down the length of this level of the building to the far brightly lit end.

Rodney followed along behind his team, his arms full of two tablets and a long length of cable. John stepped forward and caught part of the computer cable that was spilling out of Rodney's arms and they both disappeared out of the room after the device.

Teyla held back though, inclined to turn back towards the windows where she could gain a few quiet moments to reconnect with the presence, however, her attention was caught up by a new conversation.

"…the room," Radek was saying.

"What do you mean?" Mr Woolsey asked.

Teyla looked round to see Radek waving him towards the laptop screen, and Teyla moved forward around the consoles to look for herself.

"Every room in the city that we have explored so far has something in it, be it a bench, a table, or at least a window. The room that used to be at the end of the pier, it had nothing," Radek said, describing the schematic diagram on the screen, with an intercut photograph that must have been taken of the room previously, since its walls and ceiling were intact.

"Not every room has a window," Mr Woolsey pointed out.

"But, at the end of a pier? On the top floor?" Radek asked. "Every room on all the piers that line the buildings have at least one window, usually more. Yet, this room, which would have offered a vast view of the ocean and city, had none."

Teyla frowned at the point, which seemed to be important now that it had been pointed out to her.

"What do you think is the significance of that?" Mr Woolsey asked.

"It seems strange that this has occurred in such a room," Radek replied.

"Are you suggesting that something in that room created this?" Teyla asked.

"It is unlikely, as there was nothing in the room. I have also gone over all the power logs before the explosion and there were no abnormal power readings to the room. In fact, there was nothing in there, other than a light fixture, that would require power."

"Then what are you suggesting?" Mr Woolsey asked.

"That perhaps this has happened before," Radek replied.

"And the room had to be reconstructed afterwards?" Teyla asked, understanding his thinking now.

"Perhaps," Radek replied.

"Have we gone through the Ancient database for anything that resembles this light?" Mr Woolsey asked.

"Yes, but nothing so far. I have a team on it, but if there is anything, the Ancients have not filed it somewhere obvious for us to find."

"Well, keep at it, Doctor," Mr Woolsey replied. "Let me know of anything you find."

Teyla watched as Mr Woolsey moved away towards a camera feed of the corridor that led to the light source. On the screen, Teyla could see Rodney's team setting up the device, and at the edge, she saw John stood waiting, his attention split between looking down towards the light and back towards Rodney's team.

She considered joining them, being closer to the light herself, to see if that would help her detect the presence more effectively, but at the same time…there was something about that light that made her want to stay away from it. Something deep inside her felt deeply uncomfortable, almost emotional, about it. She wished she could understand why that was so.

She moved away from the consoles, back towards the windows, drawn by the darkness of the night outside, which glowed faintly with the alien light. She set her hands to the glass, and once again began seeking out that faint presence that seemed so difficult to grasp.

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John watched through his thick sunglasses as the beam of red light shone out in a sharp perfect line out from the business end of the new device, down the corridor and into the light that was spilling out of the far room. The light was too bright for John to look too far into that room, but he could see that the red beam of light seemed to carry through into it.

"We're getting some readings," Rodney announced.

John looked back round towards him, waiting with a patience that surprised him. Behind Rodney, Ronon stood with far less patience, his big arms crossed across his chest. With sunglasses on, Ronon looked like he was Rodney's bodyguard, stood waiting for the moment when he was likely going to have to haul Rodney's butt away from danger.

"If these readings are right, then the beam is being deflected by whatever the source is," Rodney reported.

John winced back towards the blinding light down the far end of the corridor. "You can't read anything then?"

"No, we're getting enough to…this can't be right," Rodney muttered.

John looked round at him. "What?"

Rodney, stood in the bright light next to the device, a dark visor right out of Star Trek over his eyes, jabbed at the tablet in his arms.

"Rodney?" John called to him.

Rodney looked up from the tablet. "It's a force field."

"A force field?" Woolsey asked over the radio, John having forgotten that the channel was open.

"Yes, and if these readings are right…it's an Ancient force field," Rodney added and there was a growing sense of worry in his voice that was concerning John.

"What does that mean?" Woolsey asked.

"It means that we might very well be looking at the countermeasures of the Ancients to hold something at bay," Zelenka reported into the conversation over the radio.

John's mind immediately went in to what this could mean. "You mean this is a force field that the Ancients set up thousands of years ago to hold something in, and now it's failing?"

"The light isn't from the force field," Rodney said, his attention down on the tablet.

"Whenever the field has expanded, it absorbed the room's walls and ceiling," Radek said. "Could it be the event horizon of a black hole? That would account for the temporal variations."

John looked worriedly back towards the light shining at him. A black hole in the city!

No, it wasn't a black hole. He was suddenly sure of that, though he had no idea why. He was suddenly just certain of that fact, so clearly and with such a conviction that he knew it was true. Why, was another question, and though he felt sure that this was no black hole, his sense of anxiety about the situation didn't lessen one bit. If anything, he was feeling more worried by it all. A deep part of him felt compelled to act, but he had no idea in what way. Almost as if a clock was counting down somewhere and though he could hear it ticking, he had no idea what to do about it. His body almost itched to do something, but he had no avenue to channel that drive for action.

He glared towards the light shinning far down the corridor and struggled to work out what he should be doing. One thing he was absolutely sure of was that he mustn't run away from the light. If anything, he felt the compulsion to move towards it again. He remembered the experience of looking up past the pretty bright light to the stars shinning so bright and beautiful overhead.

"…even if it was, there's nothing we can do that counteracts a black hole," Rodney was arguing over the radio with Radek and John realised he had missed some conversation.

"Is the force field failing?" John asked, not sure if the question had already been discussed when he hadn't been listening.

Rodney looked towards him, the red beam of light still shinning past him. "That might explain why it's expanding, that it can't hold back whatever forces are inside it anymore."

"Can we set up another force field around it to support the original field?" Woolsey asked.

"We could, but I have no idea how that would even be possible," Rodney replied, sounding like he was feeling hassled by everyone. "Look we don't even know that it's a black hole, and if it was, a force field would hardly make any difference against it."

"If we put another force field around it, will it stop the problem?" John asked, keeping to the basic question.

"I don't know, maybe," Rodney replied. "But, you don't understand. This force field that's trying to hold in whatever, it's as powerful as the city's shield. We could collapse the city's shield down around it, but then we would have to keep it there, and we would be without a city shield or cloak."

"If we lose the city through the expanding event horizon, a shield won't be of any use anyway," Zelenka reasoned.

"We don't even know if it will help," Rodney argued back.

"What should we do then, Rodney?" John asked impatiently.

"The Ancient force field has held for thousands of years, it probably needs fixing," Rodney replied hotly.

"Great," John replied "How do we do that?"

"We have no idea where the shield is being generated from, Rodney," Zelenka said.

"The Ancients wouldn't have set up something like this without making sure there's some back up to it, or-"

The light suddenly grew brighter, the intensity hurting John's eyes even before he closed them tightly and turned from the growing source. Once again, he felt the weakness behind him, and he leant forward to stop himself from staggering backwards.

A crash to his right sent some new bright sparks into the air, and he could hear Rodney swearing over the radio and across the small distance of the corridor.

"We've lost my device," Rodney grumbled loudly.

John opened his eyes to see Rodney crouched by the fallen gun-like device. Ronon was in the same place, but he was pushing his sunglasses back on as if they had been dislodged from his face.

"Everybody okay?" John asked.

"Oh yes, perfect," Rodney grumbled as he picked up the device, two technicians assisting him.

John looked back round towards the light, which now looked stronger and closer than before.

A rush of frustration filled him. He whirled back round towards Rodney and his team.

"If the shield is not being generated in the city, then where is it coming from?" He demanded.

Rodney looked past John towards the light.

"Perhaps it is from another space-time," Zelenka suggested. "That could also explain the temporal variations."

"Are you suggesting this is coming from another reality?" Woolsey asked.

"We know one reality can impact on another, we've done so, when we were sending those exotic particles across the bridge…"

Zelenka's voice faded from John's attention, because he had already dismissed that theory. As with his conviction about this not being a black hole, he was also sure that this was not another reality dumping their mess in another.

"Rodney," he called, fixing his attention on his friend and colleague. "If you were an Ancient and you needed to hold back something powerful, whatever it is, from engulfing the city using a force field, how would you do it?"

Rodney frowned.

"How?" John pushed.

"I'd want it to be self generating power, not reliant on an external source," Rodney replied.

John nodded, agreeing with that idea. "Then why would it be failing now?"

Rodney shrugged. "Maybe its components are too old, breaking down."

"So, we'd need to replace them, right?" John asked.

"Yes, but there's no way of doing that-" Rodney paused and stepped forward a few steps towards John, his mind clearly working on the idea. "I'd make sure that repairs could be made."

"You'd put a door in it," John concluded. "A door that only Ancients could get through."

"Or those with their gene," Rodney finished.

That felt right. John looked back towards the light. It abruptly expanded again and this time the pull felt stronger. John stumbled forward a couple of paces, and reached out to steady Rodney falling beside him.

"We need to find that door, Rodney."

"John," Teyla's voice arrived abruptly over the radio. "In my dream, there was a doorway, and the light spilled out from it."

"You think the light is guiding us towards the door?" John asked.

"If there is a doorway, then maybe it'll be the weakest point in the shield and that would be where the light would shine out the strongest," Rodney muttered as he jabbed away at his tablet.

"Then the light source is the doorway," John concluded quietly.

"We can't know that for sure," Woolsey argued.

"Light shining out of a window," Zelenka muttered thoughtfully. "Perhaps also working as a warning that the shield is failing."

"Then we need to go to the very source of the light," John suggested.

"Everything that the source has touched so far as disappeared," Woolsey argued. "Likely destroyed."

"That was all inorganic matter. If we're right, organic material, or perhaps just someone with the Ancient gene will be able to enter," Rodney considered.

"That's quite a risk to take and to enter where?" Woolsey asked.

John looked at Rodney's frown.

"It's all we've got right now," John replied.

"I think we should pull back and reconsider this, maybe collect some more data before making such a decision," Woolsey said with that leadership tone that was wavering on an order that John wasn't going to like.

John felt that pulling back now would be a mistake. That clock was ticking, perhaps faster now and he wasn't about to run away.

"What if that presence Teyla sensed from the light is an Ancient in there needing our help?" John suggested.

"What like a technician left in there?" Rodney asked.

"Someone to watch over the shield?" John guessed. "I don't know, but if Teyla's sensing a presence through it, then there has to be somewhere beyond that light where that presence is coming from." It was weak reasoning, but John clung to it. He needed to get in there.

"If that's true, then they've failed in maintaining it and need our help. We don't know what they would need though, what to take in with us, even if we can," Rodney considered.

"There's only one way to find out," John concluded. "One of us needs to go in there and find out."

"This is just a theory, Colonel," Woolsey protested with that leadership tone again. "I can't risk you going in there to be killed."

"Sir, with all due respect, there's not much of a choice right now. We need to fix this problem before it gets any worse."

"We have no evidence to back up your theory, Colonel Sheppard," Woolsey argued again. "This might all be some elaborate trap and that presence is potentially harmful."

"So we should wait for them to come out and attack us first?" John argued back. "If you're right, maybe we should take the fight to them."

"I think we should analyse the data first and…"

John didn't listen to the rest of Woolsey's excuse, he knew what he had to do now and he was going to do it.

He strode forward, down the corridor, the light growing brighter before him. Two boots joined alongside his. Ronon strode forward beside him, ready to meet any attack at his side.

"Buddy, if I'm right, you can't go in there. Only those with the gene," John told him. Ronon looked defiant. "I need you out here, ready in case Woolsey's right and something nasty is going to come out of that light.

Ronon frowned at him and then off towards the glowing end of the corridor. "I don't like it."

"I know, but I need you out here," John replied, knowing that Ronon couldn't argue against him on this.

"John!" Teyla's voice arrived over the radio, but also to his left. He looked round to see that she had joined them in the corridor from the far lab. She was wearing one of the thick visors that covered her eyes and half her forehead, which meant that he couldn't see her eyes, and for some reason he was glad about that.

"Are you sure this is wise?" She asked as she reached him and Ronon.

"Hey, you dreamed it," he joked.

She did not look amused, at least as much of her expression as he could see around the visor in the bright light. She reached out and touched his arm again.

"I did not mean that you should re-enact it," she replied.

"If I'm right, it was a message," John told her.

He could see the deep frown for sure this time. "How can you be so sure of that?" She asked, her tone serious and full of a curiosity that suggested that he really was acting slightly out of character as he suspected he was.

He was ready to joke or play the hero in his reply, but instead he stopped himself, feeling the compulsion to speak truthfully.

"I don't know how, I just think this is the right thing to do," he told her honestly.

He tried to seek out Teyla's eyes through the light and through the thick visor. Perhaps there was the faintest trace of her eyes through the visor, and maybe she had equally as hopeless chance of seeing his eyes in turn, but he hoped she did. He wanted her to know that he was sure. He wasn't sure how or why, but he knew this was the right thing to do.

"Be careful," she said after a beat. Her hand tightened again around his arm and then dropped away.

He nodded, glanced at Ronon, nodded at him and then turned away.

He walked towards the light, only for someone to fall into step with him at his side again. This time it was Rodney, whose worried expression was very clear around his visor.

"I think I should be the one to go in," Rodney suggested with doubt in his voice.

"You do?" John asked with amusement. They were almost to the corridor space just outside the room of light.

Rodney caught at John's elbow and they both stopped. "Look, if this is something that needs to be fixed, I'm the one who needs to go in there."

John understood the reasoning and perhaps he was right. "You're probably right, but how about I go in first and check out there's no evil aliens in there first?"

Rodney frowned at him, but a glance towards the light told John that Rodney was worried about those potential evil aliens.

"I still think I'm the best person for the job," Rodney argued, surprising John. No, he wasn't surprised. Rodney had become someone who had put his life on the line for others numerous times. He could be brave when he chose to be. Things really had changed over the years. John felt a rush of affectionate friendship for Rodney in that moment.

"How about, I go in first and if its all clear, then I'll come out and get you?"

Rodney pondered that. "We're assuming that the door theory is right."

John nodded as he turned back towards the light. He was sure that it was, at least he thought he was. As he began moving forward with Rodney again, doubts began to niggle him, but he pushed them aside. This was the right thing to do.

The light was so thick now that they had to walk with their forearms in front of their foreheads, peering through their shadow to see where they were going. The doorway that had been warped before was nowhere to be seen and the light now spilled into the corridor.

John stopped and Rodney beside him. Rodney tapped away on his tablet.

"If these readings are right, then the source starts about two metres in front of us," he reported, having to shout for some reason, as if the light filled all their senses too intently. John realised that he hadn't heard anything through his radio for some time and that he must have shut it off to block out Woolsey before. He wondered if he was going to get into trouble for that later. That was if there was going to be a later for him, or for any of them.

"Okay," John said, taking a courage-filled breath. "I'm heading in."

"Maybe you should wear a radiation suit, or an evac suit," Rodney suddenly suggested worriedly. "We don't know that there's going to be a breathable atmosphere through the 'doorway'."

John considered it, but going back for a suit would take too long and besides if he was right, there would be air enough on the other side. Hopefully.

"Too late now. If it's toxic I'll step right back out again," he reasoned for Rodney's sake and then he stepped forward.

"But-" Rodney's protest died away as John moved away.

He lifted both his hands up in front of him as he moved further into the brightness, his P90 a heavy weight against his front. The shadow of his hands provided barely enough for him to see his own feet. His black uniform barely stood out in the light it was so engulfing, and looking down at his boots he felt like he was walking on nothing but light. He stopped looking down, and focused on moving forward.

Now he was thinking about it, what would the source look like?

The air seemed to grow suddenly thick around him, pressing in on him and his vision filled with light that he could no longer shield himself from.

He gasped at the sensation, but then abruptly it was gone and so was the light around him.

He dropped his hands to find himself stood before a large turning ball of swirling colours, spinning behind a glowing blue force field. Strange crackling and fizzing sounds emanated from the field before him, the sound echoing around him as if he was in a tight space.

Pulling off his sunglasses, he looked behind him to see another wall, glowing with the glamour of a force field. A thin narrow slip of space existed between the central force field and the one behind him, and in that space he now stood. It seemed to stretch far in both directions, the central ball of swirling colours at least five metres wide.

A loud sharp crack of sound from his far left sent an arc of bright light from the central spinning ball out towards the wall behind him. He flinched at the wild electric feeling in the air, as the light hit the wall, and like lightening down an earth wine it fizzled out immediately, the light directed across the back wall without incident. The air around him still felt faintly charged though, slightly intensified by the passing shock.

"O-kay," John muttered to himself as he kept his eyes on the far site where the arcing light had started.

The air shifted again, but this time it wasn't with an impending electric strike, it was with the presence of someone else in this strange place with him.

"Hello, John," a soft voice greeted him.

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TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Emerging Part 5**

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"_Time is both a gift and a curse. It defines our lives, gives flow to our story and creates all that we know. Yet, it also means that we are forever flowing forward, unable to linger in the most wonderful of moments, instead pushed always onwards as if caught in the flow of a great river. Despite our best wishes, we are unable to even grip to the edge of that river in an attempt to prolong an experience for a little longer. _

_Instead, we flow ever onwards, and it is only in our memories of the past in which we can linger. We can linger almost indefinitely in the recalled joys and woes of what has been. In those memories, we can replay a lifetime, but we can never return to live them again. At least not directly…" _

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John spun round, his hands dropping to his P90, but he didn't do more than grip the weapon before he registered the person stepping closer.

Her age struck him immediately – an old woman, who somehow stood only a metre or so away without John having heard her approach. Despite that fact, he immediately assessed that he wasn't in any immediate danger of attack, but he kept his hands on his weapon, because he damn well knew that enemies came in all shapes and sizes.

He processed all this in a split second, during which he also registered that she had called him by name, and that the voice, elderly as it was, seemed familiar somehow.

"It is good to see you again," she said as she moved towards him, her voice full of amusement and pleasure.

"Um, okay," he managed to reply before he caught himself at being rude. As if suddenly stood before his grandma from years ago, he felt himself stand straighter and opened his mouth to apologise and offer a more polite greeting to this stranger. Except, that she chuckled at him as she moved a step closer, smiling up at him.

Feeling completely thrown off by this woman, and the feeling that there was some joke that he was missing, he felt a frisson of annoyance rising, until she stopped so much closer, the light from the wall behind him and the central sphere finally cast over her face.

Her features struck him strongly, so familiar, yet…

She smiled wider up at him and he frowned at her.

"You look…" he began.

She chuckled again. "You do not recognise me, John?" She asked, and though the words seemed to imply that she might be insulted, she was still smiling. "I know that you do. After all, you have recognised me through far stranger faces before. It is me, John."

Her words struck him again, and the voice, dry and aged through it was, seemed the same. But, how could that be?

She nodded as if he had said something already.

"Teyla?" He asked incredulously.

The smile softened slightly, seeming filled with more emotion now, and John thought he saw a shine to her eyes. "Yes, John."

"But…?" He began as he gestured towards the wall to his right through which he had arrived into this weird space. He stopped himself from asking the question, because various possible answers came to him even before he asked. He dropped his hand back down.

She kept smiling, which now was so obviously Teyla's smile, except that her face was so much older, perhaps eighty years old, maybe more, he couldn't be sure. She stood slightly shorter to him than the Teyla he had just left back out in Atlantis, but then that was probably from age and the faint stoop she had, though she still stood with the proud strength he knew so well. Her hair was long and grey, the length of it woven into a long plait that disappeared over her shoulder. She wore a textured shawl that now he looked knowing who she was he recognised the very Athosian design of the printed pattern.

He looked up into her eyes again, eyes filmy with age, but far sharper and brighter than most of her age, whatever it was precisely. Despite the changes to her eyes, he felt the familiar connection with her, just as he had that first time he had met her back on Old Athos. This _was_ Teyla.

"So you're Teyla, but Teyla from the future or from another reality?" He asked, keeping casual, as if he wasn't totally thrown off by this new version of Teyla, but then it wasn't as if he hadn't met duplicates before.

She tilted her head considering her answer. That smile was still playing over her lips and though it was nice to see, he still got the feeling that he was missing something here. The thought did occur to him that he shouldn't just trust this woman, even if every fibre of his being said she was Teyla. There could be evil Teylas in other realities, evil granny Teylas.

"It is difficult to say," she replied rather cryptically.

John frowned at her. She just smiled and reached out with one aged hand that had been tucked inside the large comfy shawl. Her warm hand touched against his arm in a gesture that was friendly and reassuring.

"I think right now, John, that there are more pressing questions we need to address," she said, talking to him with the familiarity of the friendship he was used to with his Teyla. He felt rather resistant to being directed away from his question, but her hand was warm against his arm and he felt her leaning ever so faintly on him, as if she was using him to hold herself up.

Behind him, a sharp crack of sound accompanied another arc of lightening from the central sphere. Wincing, John turned, keeping himself between the possible threat and Teyla, but he could see immediately that the lightening had once again been consumed by the outer wall, dissipating the charge away.

"Do not worry, we are safe," Teyla assured him once the sound had dissipated enough for him to hear her.

John looked back round at her, the questions forming on his lips, to see that she was looking at the central sphere. Okay, she was right, there were important questions to be addressed.

"What is this place?" He asked her.

She looked from the sphere to him, and there was a slight pause before she replied, and once she began the words flowed, as they always did with Teyla when she started a story.

"The Ancestors call this a nexus. We are separate from normal space time here, protected from the changes 'outside' back in Atlantis and from the power of this." She gestured to the central sphere.

The sphere was clearly surrounded by a force field, his glamour shimmering across its surface. John leant forward slightly, trying to see into the sphere through the force field, but all he could make out were swirling colours.

"What is it?" He asked.

She looked to him, her manner very serious now, all amusement gone.

"This is the result of an ancient experiment. An Ancestor's attempt to rescue his people, to create a place that would be safe for them all from the Wraith. A new area of space time that would be self contained and enable all his people to escape the siege of Atlantis and to live out their lives in a protected safe haven." She looked down to the sphere. "This is the result - another universe."

John frowned at that thought, staring back round at the sphere. "You're telling me that this is another universe?"

Teyla looked back up to him. "Yes. The Ancestor had intended to create a small pocket of space time in which to create a liveable environment for his people, but instead, somehow, he formed the creation of an entirely new universe. It's explosive creation destroyed him, his lab, and much of the pier's building. It then began expanding. The Ancestors reacted immediately, containing the new universe. I do not understand the science of it all, but simply put, two universes cannot exist in the same space, and the continued creative expansion of a new universe would have resulted in the destruction of our own had the Ancestors not stopped its advance."

"So they built this place to contain it?" John asked. "They couldn't stop it permanently?"

"Perhaps they could have, but the Ancestors believed that in doing so they could possibly be destroying new life that may exist inside the new universe."

John frowned at that thought. "They thought people could be evolving in that little new universe?" He asked.

"The laws of physics and the flow of time in the new universe would be greatly different to our own. In the hours it took the Ancestors to reach a decision, eons could have passed inside the new universe. Perhaps entire worlds had been created and populated with basic forms of life, which could have evolved into complex live and civilisations. The Ancestors had no way to tell, and so they were unwilling to destroy it when it could be contained, and so they created this nexus to contain the universe."

"Why didn't we know about this? Back in Atlantis?" John asked.

"An entire universe with limitless power that could be drained from it presented a possible weapon to be used against the Ancestors, and they felt they should protect the universe that they had inadvertently allowed to be created. They saw themselves as guardians of it, as well as preserving our own universe. Creating a nexus, a place outside of normal space time in which to contain it, protected all concerned."

John knew what was coming before he asked the question. "I feel a 'but' coming."

She chuckled lightly. "The 'but' is that the containment field is failing."

"It's been holding back a whole universe for thousands of years," John agreed.

"The Ancestors designed the containment field to draw its power from the energy that is naturally given out by the universe itself, therefore the power supply would forever exist to contain it," Teyla replied.

John looked down at her. "I'm still waiting for the 'but'," he pointed out.

She looked to the sphere. "The universe seems to be reaching the end of its life. It is decreasing and it's power output is reducing."

"Isn't that a good thing?" John asked. "It's dying out so the threat will be gone."

Teyla looked back up at him, worry faintly creasing her face. "In theory yes, however there is a delicate balance between the containment field and the universe. As the universe's power reduces, the field has less to maintain its containment of the universe. The discrepancy that is forming is tiny, but it has almost reached a tipping point, and the containment field will not have enough power to contain the universe. It will only take a brief moment of failure for containment to be lost and the universe to break free, destroy the nexus and then nothing will be able to stop it expanding into our own universe again."

"But, it's dying," John said.

"Perhaps only because of such long term containment, there is no way to know. I think it best that the universe does not have the slightest chance to break free, for it may reignite something within it, I do not know, and we cannot risk the chance that it may be able once again to destroy all we know."

"Okay, so we don't want that." John frowned at the sphere. "What can we do?"

"The containment field needs to be supplemented just enough to stay ahead of the shortage in the universe's output of energy," Teyla replied rather technically.

"We need more power," John summarised.

"Yes," Teyla replied. She turned to face him again. "It will take a ZPM to supplement the field."

John frowned at that. "A whole ZPM? For how long?"

"It will need to be linked up indefinitely. There is no way to know how long it will take for the universe to die away entirely, and since the flow of time here is different to the 'outside' world…"

"The Ancients didn't leave any spares around here then?" John asked. He was feeling a little nervous about this, because this was no small thing to ask for. He didn't really know this Teyla, didn't really know what she was telling him was the truth, even though he wanted to believe her. He frowned at his confusion, his training clashing with his instincts.

"There is already a ZPM linked up to the nexus' consoles, but half of its power was used during the initiation of the containment field to establish the nexus and it has been supplementing small shortfalls of power since," Teyla replied.

"What if a new ZPM is drained up as well?" John asked. It wasn't like they had tons of ZPMs lying around.

Teyla smiled at that, the amusement returning somewhat. "The previous one has lasted a very long time, I think the new one will be fine. Besides, I will be too old to help out again," she added with a grin.

John frowned at her, trying not to be distracted by the mischievous smile. "Why _are_ you here?" He asked.

The grin slipped into a more pained expression, though it disappeared quickly into another smile. She looked up at him with an aged body and face, but her eyes, they were almost exactly the same.

"Because _you_ asked me to, John," she replied.

0000000  
TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**Emerging Part 6**

0000000

"I asked you to?" John repeated back not understanding. "How? Why?" He asked.

"Because you saw me here," she replied after a pause, as if she had been thinking about not answering him, or perhaps telling him something else.

"But, then you wouldn't have been here if I hadn't…?" He asked in confusion.

Her hand shifted on his arm, squeezing gently, and then she actually patted his arm reassuringly. "It is best not to think about it, I know how much you hate paradoxes. What we need to focus on is getting a ZPM here as soon as possible. Atlantis still has several working, does it not?" She asked.

John's brain was still circling her explanation warily, which had been brushed aside with a rather condescending comment, like she was used to him asking confused questions…it was all getting a bit too weird. Now she was asking questions about Atlantis' power, and his natural military mind was really beginning to worry about all this. What if this wasn't really Teyla? What if this was some bizarre elaborate set up to get a ZPM.

She must have seen the doubt in his expression because she paused and frowned up at him.

"You are concerned that I am not who I appear to be," she correctly guessed. But, then if she was right, then he would have told her that he would be suspicious… That was only if what she said was telling the truth, which would mean she was from the future, but…

"If you doubt who I am, ask any question of me and I will prove myself to you," she continued, and despite her advanced age, she sounded strong and defiant, and he felt oddly ashamed for questioning her. No, he had every right to question this.

"You got admit, this all sounds…" he waved his hands.

"As crazy as you walking into a strange alien light that had consumed an entire room? That you walked into that light and appeared here in this strange place?" She challenged him. "Ask me any question, John, and I will prove who I am to you. Do not fear, despite my age, my memory is excellent, perhaps more so on past details than more recent, but ask, John."

"I'm not saying that you're lying to me," John tried to defend himself, feeling uncomfortable at upsetting her, his Teyla, but also a granny… It was getting confusing for him.

"Ask me anything, John," she repeated, though the challenging tone had lessened in her voice. "Ask me about any mission, about losing Aiden, finding Ronon, about how you once confided to me that you would do anything for any one of our team, a team you consider family. I can tell you anything you wish to know and more. How it was on a flip of a coin that you joined the Atlantis expedition. How the scar on your upper arm, that you tell Ronon is from a past secret mission, was in fact inflicted when you were a young child and fell out of a tree in your grandmother's yard."

John had never told her that before, he was sure of it, in fact he couldn't remember having told anyone in years about that. It was a good scar, just not a brave story behind it. His grandmother had stitched up the cut herself, since he had been in tears, begging her not to tell his father, which a trip to A&E would have resulted in.

Teyla stepped closer, looking straight up at him, the strange swirling brightness of the containment fields shining across her wizened face. Her eyes were intent, full of an earnestness he couldn't deny and a truth that was almost too raw to look at, because there was more in her eyes than he could rationally describe.

"I know how losing Aiden and Elizabeth still haunts you, that the best part of your day is sitting down to meals with our team. I know how you love the chocolate ginger cake from the Mess Hall, how you hate morning showers, and I can tell you _exactly_ where your birthmark is located." She smiled at this last point and John frowned at her, shocked at that small detail of knowledge she knew, but then maybe his birthmark was listed in his medical records, maybe…

Her mischievous smile dimmed as she looked up at him.

"I know that on the day you returned home from Afghanistan, your body full of hurt inside and out, that you sat in your cell, having just escaped from the last one, and you hurt." Her words carried him right back to that day, a day he rarely thought about, forced himself not to. "Your back burned from where you had been whipped, your feet burnt from torture, and you felt as if someone had stabbed you right through."

The memories flooded forward for him, her words bringing them back to life with surprising passion through such softly spoken words. She said them as if she had been there with him. That night, his first one back in the US for months, but it had been a homecoming without any joy. There had been only regret, guilt, and a court marshal on his horizon. It had been a painful day and a lonely night that followed. That she knew about it, in tiny detail, told him not only that she was who she said she was, but also that their friendship would grow stronger in the years to come, because he sure as hell hadn't told his Teyla, or anyone, of that day.

Except, she hadn't finished, she stepped up closer to him, almost touching him, and she looked up at him with eyes that shone in the strange light.

"I know how the guilt felt like a real weight upon you," she continued in her soft voice, a voice full of empathy and understanding. It cut at him, because he had never shared this with anyone, and to know that he would with her was oddly painful yet pleasing to know. This Teyla knew what had happened back then and understood, she accepted what he had done and she didn't think badly of him. That knowledge, so beautiful and painful at once almost moved him to tears, but he forced himself to listen, to remain calm.

"I know that you looked up out of that barred window, up to the night sky outside, and you thought about the end of it all," she continued, her voice barely a whisper, but John's focus hung on every word. He was shocked to hear how much more she knew, and he knew what she was going to say next, and he was stunned to his soul to know that he would one day tell her this.

"You thought, in that moment, that the world would be better without you in it," she finished quietly.

John's throat felt tight. He had never told anyone that, ever. No shrink, no Nancy at the stormy end of their marriage, he hadn't told anyone, and had barely thought of it himself. It had been the lowest point of his life, to reach so low, so weak a point, it had shamed him more than what others had thought of him at that time. Reaching rock bottom then had actually helped him in the end, because he had fought back against his own inner fear and weakness, and it had steadied him up to face all those questions and the trial afterwards. It had been a turning point for him perhaps, and one that he had never, ever, even mentioned to anyone before.

In Teyla's eyes, he could see that she understood all of that, and that realisation shocked him as much as the wetness he felt at the edge of his eyes. He blinked hard and broke his eyes away from her for a second's reprieve.

"I know you, John Sheppard," Teyla continued, her voice warmer and stronger now. Her hand touched against his chest, her eyes soft and kind as he met them again. "And together, we will stop the containment field from failing," she added.

Her complete confidence in him was something that he had felt before, something that had unnerved him at times, it tapping into his longstanding fears of letting down those he cared for the most. He had let others down before and since he had tried all he could to make sure that never happened again. Part of him knew that he may never be able to live up to that ideal, but today would not be that day. Today he could help her to stop the containment field from collapsing - because they had to, because she believed in him, and because he was still thrown by her knowledge of him. Would their friendship really become that close that he would share so much of his past with her? He found it strange to think that he would ever be that close to someone again, and especially not someone who would be 'just' a friend…

A spark of light far behind her was another arcing of lightening across from the inner force field to the outer one, and in that spark of power, John looked into her dark eyes and he suspected he already knew the answer to his question, but now was not the time to dwell on it.

Teyla had remained quiet, giving him a few moments to lose himself in his conflicting and confused thoughts, but that time was now up.

"So you understand, John, that when I say that we need to bring a ZPM here as quickly as possible, that I am being truthful," she said as she looked over her shoulder to where the last of the lightening was still dissipating away. "When you leave here for the ZPM, I do not know how long that passage of time will be for me and the nexus. It may feel like moments, or it may be far longer. We cannot risk waiting any longer, John."

John didn't doubt her words anymore, somewhere in her speech, in her knowledge of him and in the hidden truths in her eyes, he had become utterly convinced that she was on the line. He had to help her and get a ZPM here as soon as possible. "I'm gonna need to talk to Woolsey, hopefully he'll-"

"John, you need to get back here as soon as physically possible," Teyla stressed, her voice, for the first time, agitated. "And you cannot tell anyone that I am here, though perhaps Mr Woolsey could know," she considered.

"Why?" John asked.

"Because, I, the other version of me, must not know about this, not until much later," she replied. John opened his mouth to ask but she kept talking. "If she knew about my being in here, it may alter how she lives her life, for in seeing herself so much older, she may take more risks in the belief that she would live to my age. It may alter things too much and put her at risk."

John frowned at the thought, agreeing with the importance of keeping Teyla from anything dangerous, but this Teyla obviously knew that he had met a Teyla in here… He was getting a headache from all of this. "But, you know that I see you here…?"

"You will tell me, your version of Teyla, one day, when the time is right," she replied. "But, for now, you need to hurry." She pushed at his arm as she said this, her strength good for her age, but noticeably far weaker than what he was used to in Teyla.

John turned as she pushed him, turning to face the wall of light that he had come through, but there was no clear doorway.

"It is alright, just walk towards the wall's light as you did in Atlantis," she assured him.

John took in her appearance again, a sense of concern rising up in him. "You gonna be alright while I'm gone?" He asked.

She smiled bemusedly at that. "Yes, I will be fine, but you must hurry," she iterated again.

"You always gonna be a nag?" He teased her, grinning at her replying raised eyebrow that was so familiar.

He looked away before she could banter back a reply and he strode forward towards the wall. The light seemed to reach for him as he stepped up to it. It surrounded him, blinding him, and then he was walking forward, solid smooth floor under his boots.

00000

Teyla lowered her eyelids behind the thick sunglasses and peered around the doorframe towards the glowing light again. The light had expanded several more times since John had disappeared into it, almost half an hour ago.

Silhouetted against the brightness in the far room lingered Rodney, closer to the light source as he waited for John to return. Teyla and Ronon stood further down the corridor, having to stand either side of the doorframe, partially hidden from the light to tolerate being so close and yet closer than Mr Woolsey preferred.

"He's been gone too long," Ronon said worriedly again.

Teyla pulled back slightly behind the shield of the doorframe and looked across the light filled doorway to where Ronon stood across from her. Like her, he had been feeling edgy ever since John had disappeared into the light source. She glanced down at her watch yet again.

"I am sure that if there was a problem John would have retreated immediately," she suggested weakly, and not for the first time.

Ronon frowned deeply and looked back down the corridor towards the light. The band of dark glass across his eyes hid much of his expression, but Teyla didn't need to see much detail to know exactly how her friend felt. She felt all the same apprehension as he did over John's absence.

She felt particularly frustrated for she was the only one among them who had any chance of further intell into what might be happening on the other side of that shining light. However, her ability to sense the undefined presence remained frustratingly difficult, and if anything it was becoming even more difficult.

"What is it?" Ronon asked her, presumably having seen her attempting to focus inside, reaching for that elusive presence.

She frowned and shook her head. "I am finding it more difficult than before to even sense the other presence now, almost as if…as if they are only now aware of me and are shielding their mind from me."

This seemed to be all Ronon needed as provocation from the unseen presence. "Sheppard's in trouble," he declared, his shoulders and fists tensing ready for the action he had been longing for since the light had first appeared.

"It does not necessarily mean that, Ronon. Perhaps John's arrival drew their attention to my presence out here," she rationed calmly, not that she hadn't already thought the same as Ronon. Yet, there was something about the presence that remained familiar, though she was barely able to sense it now that whoever it was had their defences up.

"They wouldn't be hiding from you if they didn't have something to hide," Ronon reasoned.

Teyla frowned around the doorframe towards the light again, worrying at the inside of her lower lip as she did. "Perhaps," she conceded.

The light seemed to grow slightly in intensity and Teyla braced herself for the next expansion of the light.

"Rodney, be careful," she called over the radio to Rodney, keeping her eye on him, even though it meant she remained facing into the brightness longer than was comfortable. She lifted her arm, her hand angled to provide whatever shadow it could against the light to allow her to keep her eyes on Rodney.

However, the expansion did not arrive, and instead a new shadow appeared in the midst of the light and Teyla's heart rose in hope, though she also tensed in preparation for something far less favourable.

"Something's coming out of the light," Rodney shouted over the radio, but already the shadow's vague shape became more defined within the brightness.

Teyla immediately recognised the outline of her friend. "It is the Colonel," she announced over the radio, the joy and relief in her voice plain and she was unashamed to express it. Her relief at seeing him, clearly whole and walking towards them, warmed her through, but his voice then cut through the radio frequency and it was tense.

"This is Sheppard, we're gonna need a ZPM up here ASAP," he ordered as he strode forward.

"This is Woolsey," Mr Woolsey replied immediately. "What is the situation, Colonel?"

Teyla watched Rodney's silhouette join John's, the two of them moving swiftly towards where she and Ronon waited. Teyla's relief felt short lived, because she could see the tension in John's shoulders and in the fast pace of his steps as he reached the doorway and paused, Rodney's science team before him.

"We've got an Ancient containment field about to fail and release a whole of heap of trouble our way," he replied to Woolsey, his hands on his hips, his body straight and determined. There was no doubt in his expression, around his sunglasses, and no sign of injury or stress to him.

"I knew it," Rodney muttered. "Ancients, they never live up to their hype."

"The containment field's running out of juice and it'll take a ZPM to support it enough to keep containment," John continued.

"Containment of what?" Mr Woolsey demanded.

"An Ancient experiment that ended up creating a new universe, that wants to big-bang itself out of that containment field and if that happens it'll obliterate ours," John stated dramatically, though his tone was nothing but professional concern.

All eyes moved past John towards the light again.

"Doctor Zelenka, pick one of the ZPM's and have it brought up to the pier," Mr Woolsey ordered Radek, referring to the city's weakened ZPMs that remained from their trip back to Earth.

"I think the beta ZPM should have enough power left for something like this," Radek was heard considering, his voice hurried.

"That'll leave us with two barely functioning ZPMs?" Rodney protested.

John turned to look at Rodney stood to his right. The sunglasses blocked much of John's expression, but his voice was enough.

"It won't matter if that field collapses," John replied, gesturing back towards the bright shining light.

Rodney frowned at him. "Are you sure you got this right? You can't read Ancient all that well-"

"I can read the basics just fine, and besides I got this from…the technician inside," he added. His voice wavered as he added that fact. Teyla was not sure why, but John seemed to grow slightly uncomfortable at that point.

"Technician?" Rodney asked. "An Ancient?" He asked excitedly.

"No, a human, stationed between the two force fields to watch over the whole thing," John replied, his voice level, but there was something about the way he said it that drew Teyla's attention.

"The presence I have been sensing," she assumed.

"Sure," John replied, his attention for the first time directed towards her, and again though his eyes were hidden from her, she thought she saw him pause as if frowning at her.

"Who are they?" She asked.

There was the smallest of pauses again before he answered, a pause that others might not have thought significant, but to Teyla it was most noticeable.

"Someone in the right place at the right time," John replied with his more usual glib style of replies, the forced smile clear beneath his sunglasses not fooling her for a moment.

Now it was Teyla's turn to frown at him, but before she could say anything more, movement to her right drew their attention. She turned to see that Mr Woolsey had decided to join them in the corridor.

"Are you sure about this, Colonel?" He asked as he arrived, one hand up over his forehead to shield his eyes further to the thick dark glassed goggles that he wore that looked as if they had been salvaged from one of the science labs. "Giving away a ZPM-"

"I know it's a lot, but if we don't do this now, there won't be a city left to need any ZPMs," he replied.

"I should run this by-" Mr Woolsey began, but John interrupted him, which was not usually John's style of behaving with the city's leader. He and Mr Woolsey had forged a seemingly respectful enough working relationship, and John's impatience now spoke volumes.

"We don't have time for that," John argued. "The field is failing back there and since time moves differently in there, any minute I spend out here could be god knows how long in there for her."

The feminine reference drew all of Teyla's focus and, though she wished it was not so, her opinion of the unseen and distant presence altered somewhat.

"Oh, typical," Rodney said. "I bet she's hot and you just believed everything she said-."

John turned sharply towards Rodney, glaring as best he could around the glasses and through the brightness that was dazzling around all of them. "Rodney, grow up."

For some reason, this seemed to cut at Rodney particularly well, or perhaps it had been the way John had said it.

"I need to get back in there with the ZPM before the field fails," John continued to Mr Woolsey.

Teyla watched him look straight at Mr Woolsey, who looked directly back at him. A wealth of history and built respect filled the moment. Teyla had no doubt at all that the ZPM was needed, for if John had been convinced by what he had learnt inside that containment field, then she would believe him. Of course, like most men, John had a tendency to be distracted by a pretty face, but when it came to matters of urgency and the safety of his people, John could never be distracted. If he believed this 'technician' then so did she.

Teyla looked at Mr Woolsey's face, wondering what calculations and predictions were occurring in his fast efficient mind, likely involving political issues that would result from this decision, perhaps even risking his own position as leader of the city.

"You're sure of this?" he asked John.

"Yes," John replied. "Trust me."

To Teyla's relief that seemed to be the last point that Mr Woolsey required. He turned and looked back down the far corridor. "Do we have the ZPM yet?" he called out.

"I'll go back in with you," Rodney said to John, drawing Teyla's attention back round to them.

"No," John replied instantly and again threw Rodney into a moment of silence. It did not last long though.

"You want to hook up a ZPM, you're going to need my help," Rodney argued.

"No, Rodney, it's all set up ready to go in there. Plug and play," John replied, looking past her towards the sound of approaching steps.

Teyla looked round herself to see a silver case being handed over to Radek, who jogged the last of the corridor towards them and held it out towards John.

"It is far from being at full power," Radek said worriedly. "It might not suit the field's needs…"

"It'll work," John replied oddly confident now he was holding the case with the ZPM.

"I'm going in with you," Rodney stated.

"No, you're not, Rodney," John argued back as he turned back towards the light.

Teyla wished she too could join him, but only those with the Ancestor's gene could enter, but she was used to the team always supporting each other. She opened her mouth to say what she thought, expressing her concerns and that perhaps Rodney should accompany him inside, but John was already striding away with a determined step. Beside her Ronon moved to follow, but Mr Woolsey's hand landed on Ronon's large bicep. Ronon stopped, perhaps more from surprise than from any pressure Mr Woolsey may have attempted to hold him back with.

"There's no point, neither of you can enter safely," Mr Woolsey said. Then his gaze dropped to where his hand was still on Ronon's arm. Ronon's eyes dropped as well with an impatient look. Mr Woolsey withdrew his hand, but his point had been made on Ronon, but Teyla still moved forward. She stepped into the corridor ahead, the light surrounding her and making her eyes ache as she caught John and Rodney's continuing conversation as they strode towards the light filled room beyond.

"…temporal thing, besides if this doesn't work, you're gonna need to collapse the city's shield over it or whatever other genius idea you can come up with," John was saying, his voice growing more difficult for her to hear across the growing distance. The light seemed to fill the air with more than just shine, it seemed to fill all her other senses to the point of discomfort.

"…you're just saying that…make me stay," Rodney replied. "…but…what if…?"

Teyla stepped forward again, her hands before her, and for a moment she felt disorientated, walking forward towards the light as she had in her dream. Strange sensations and a sense of familiarity confused her for a moment, whilst ahead of her she saw the dark silhouette of John pause. He turned, as if looking back in her direction, and then he stepped away and disappeared into the bright light once more.

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TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**Emerging Part 7**

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The chair was the only piece of furniture she had been able to risk bringing with her into the nexus. That it had been living wood once had enabled it to enter through the nexus' doorway, as long as she had been pushing it. Torren had not been happy about her having to move it around once inside the nexus, but as she had reminded him, he had been no young man anymore himself.

Thinking of her eldest child brought the usual grief and feelings of loss since leaving him behind, but he had understood. He had a full and busy life of his own, a life she had witnessed with love and pride. She had hated leaving him behind, leaving all of them behind, but as she saw it, it had been the better way to say her goodbyes. A choice of her own.

They had insisted on a party beforehand, a most strange thought yet kind way to say goodbye to her. Torren had even arranged the sacred circle of stones. Saying goodbye to them, stepping out of her life and into the nexus had in effect been the end of her life. The goodbye had been akin to death, yet she had appeased her children and grandchildren with the story that she would live far longer than most whilst living inside the nexus. It was perhaps a lie, for no time existed here compared to back home, but it was an excuse, one they had all likely saw through. An excuse for her to decide when she would leave, when she could walk away, and to have it not be a painful event, or one in which she would feel she was abandoning them. But, it had been an excuse, one formed since the day John had passed to the Ancestors, and she had been left alone.

She reached one hand into the warm fabric of her shawl, sliding her arthritic fingers into the worn pocket of her jacket to pull out the small photo. She had had many photos of him, of them both, and of their family, but this photo had been the one that she had carried in her pocket for decades. A photo she had kept close to her heart during missions, negotiations, and battles when she and John had been forced apart from each other. A photo of her and husband. He had found it once when he had unaccountably decided to load the washing machine himself. She had found the photo set aside along with all the other tiny items that had been fished out of a family's pockets before a wash. He had not said anything about the picture, but she had already known he had a photo of his own.

She pulled out her photo carefully, for it was very old now, and far less resistant to the ravages of time as her body had been. Despite the protective film she had encased it in many years ago, the corners were worn and creases cut through the picture. She did not mind, for there were plenty of creases across her skin, as there had been across his, as they had aged together.

She held up the photo, having to hold it closer with each passing year so that she could peer at the details with her aging eyes.

The towers of Atlantis stood high in the background, though the colours had faded greatly. The two faces were clear though, the two of them arm around each other, smiling and leaning beside each other looking out across the balcony to the ocean beyond.

She and John had decided long ago that a piece of themselves would always remain in Atlantis. Even when they had been forced to leave the city after so many years there, they had still continued there in their hearts. She still missed the balconies and the vast ocean surrounding the city. She missed leaning with John against a balcony, his arm around her, his side warming hers against the chill, a soft kiss pressed against her temple every now and then. Yes, she missed those moments.

The tears trickled from her eyes. She missed him so very much.

She had no idea how long ago it was that he had passed to the Ancestors, but it had not been long before she had made her excuse to come here. She had told them all of her duty to be here, of her mission, her last vitally important mission to be here, to complete the paradox of the nexus. But, they likely had all known it was as much an excuse as a duty.

An excuse to see him again.

She smiled at the small photo, at the smiling expression of her lost love, older than the version who had just visited her and whose return she was waiting. Seeing him again, so abruptly, looking so young and full of life and strength – it had been vastly more joyful and more painful than she had expected.

She had feared that this time would never come, that she would exist onwards in the nexus with him never returning to her, but then suddenly…there he had been. And she had been able to recall so sharply having watched him walk into the bright shining light when she had been younger. Now, suddenly, so many decades and a lifetime later, she now knew the other side of his story, of the presence in the light who John had trusted so completely. The circle was almost complete.

"It is almost time, My Love," she whispered to the photo. She had always been a strong woman, but after living so many years alongside him, his departure, despite the wonderful age he had reached, had broken something inside her. This last mission had truly been about seeing him again as much as duty. She didn't berate her selfishness in that thought for she was too old to worry about that kind of thing now. She accepted that one event could be more than one thing.

Yet, now she realised that there perhaps there had been another motivation in coming here, for in completing this circle, she felt as if she would be securing her own past. She remembered when she was younger, when the light had appeared in Atlantis, after a strange presence had appeared in her dream, waking her up in the night to the explosion of light. That he had truly arrived here in the nexus meant that she and John would be forever now. Two combined lives that would continue in this dance, an unending circle between them. She would always be here in this place at this time and he would always enter the nexus. She felt that their long life together, all that they had shared and done for so many others, for their children and grandchildren, it was somehow all safe now.

She smiled at the photo again. John would think such thoughts fanciful, but she knew that he would always still believe the same as she did, for she had seen inside his heart and mind far too many times. When talking with his younger self, it had been so easy to guess what he had been thinking.

It had dazzled and enlivened her to see him alive and well, to listen to his voice and know how his mind would play out what she had told him. For not so many years ago, her John had shared those very memories with her. She had known the truth of the nexus from him many years before, but it had only been closer to his end, his health declining rapidly, that he had shared those memories directly, those visions of her own self, aged and wise. She had many years ago developed the ability to touch against human minds as she did Wraith, but it was far easier with those with a psychic ability of their own. John, with his Ancestor gene, had a powerful mind, and with their close intimacy, she had been able to experiment and develop her mental skills. Being able to sense John's mind and feelings through that link had only deepened their intimacy and had even enabled him to develop some interesting mental abilities himself.

It had been his wish to show her his memories of meeting 'her' inside the nexus, and though she had laughed as his opinion of her having seemed wise and sage-like, she now realised that he must have recognised how close she had appeared to the woman he remembered. He had not been able to recall all the details of the conversation he had had with the elderly Teyla, or perhaps he had chosen to withhold those details from her, for then she would not have reacted naturally when his younger version appeared. However, she believed there had also been another reason for his limiting how much he shared, for his experience meeting her in the nexus had had great significance for him afterwards. Meeting her would change his view of his own Teyla and likely would play a part in how their relationship had eventually developed beyond friendship. She had no idea what it would be that would inform that significance for him, perhaps she had already said it, for she had told him more than she had originally planned. Her John had been very wise in not sharing too much detail with her, but at the same time, she wished she knew exactly what she needed to say.

She missed that close connection of sharing thoughts and minds, being able to share on a new level with another person. Though, she looked up and away from the photo, reaching towards the vague sense she had caught of her own past self outside the nexus' exit. The temptation to connect with that past mind was very strong, but she resisted. She had already accidently shared too much as it was, for the day would come when she and John would look for a cabin to use for holiday stays on Earth. She could still remember fondly the first time she had seen that precise log cabin set among the forest, for it had been from her past dream that she had recognised it. It had niggled at John to think over that paradox – would they have chosen that cabin without her remembering it from a past dream? She had loved that cabin, had spent family Christmases there, short breaks with friends, or sometimes just her and John alone together. It was a place she associated with love, memories, and one that she had accidently shared with her past self. Yet again, the circle was complete, and that thought pleased and satisfied her to the point of tears.

She returned her gaze to the photo in her dry creased fingers. Soon her mission would be over and she hoped that… She felt the shift in the air, her sense of the nexus so well established that she felt his return well before she heard his voice calling her.

She dropped her eyes back to the picture, the youthful voice in contrast to the older face in the photo. She looked into the photo of them both together one last time, and then slid it back into its home pocket.

"Teyla?" John's voice called again, edged with worry.

"This way, John," she called back, as loud as she was able. Her lungs were far from as healthy as they used to be.

She set her hands on the thick warm wooden arms of her chair and pushed herself upright. It took some work and she was grateful that John's boot steps were still distant enough that he would not see her pause and have to work at gathering her breath and centre. Her body was failing her, but it would last to complete this mission.

"In here, John," she called again as she shuffled herself forward, getting her tired body moving towards the large blinking series of Ancestor consoles that governed the nexus.

John's footsteps grew louder until they paused in the doorway. Teyla looked towards him, her heart constricting at the beautiful sight of him again. The wealth of memories and emotions were to be sidelined for now though, for she dropped her attention to the metal case he carried.

"I knew you would bring it," she smiled up at him, her faith in her husband an unending truth, in whatever point in their timeline she stood.

"Woolsey took some persuasion," John replied as he moved further into the room towards the console. "I take it this is where it needs to go?" he asked gesturing to where the former dying ZPM was set into one end of the large console.

"And Rodney thought you would need him," she teased.

He paused as he set the case down and looked up at her with an assessing look. She could tell what he was thinking, the suspicion in his mind as to whether she was the future version of 'his' Teyla. Again, she wondered what John had learnt from her that would be significant for him, but she knew from experience and from Rodney lectures, that altering the past could be very dangerous. She must not tell John anything that might compromise the timeline. She had pushed her John at how much she could tell his past self, but he had simply told her to be 'Teyla'. That had not been all that informative, but she trusted in his opinion so she held her tongue now and distracted her attention on the console.

"There is a command sequence that will drain the ZPM of twice the normal amount an instant before you remove it. That will allow there to be no interruption in the power as long as you put in the new ZPM as quickly as possible," she instructed as she began activating the sequence. She had run through this routine many times over during her waiting, wanting it to be smooth and efficient for when the time arrived.

"Okay, just tell me when," John replied, his hands resting near the top of the ZPM set in the console.

She triggered the final part of the command sequence. The ZPM in the console glowed brighter and then shut off into an empty darkness. "Now," Teyla told him, but the ZPM was already lifting up from the console and John had his hands around it. With a quick efficient tug, the old ZPM was removed and set aside. He dipped down to life the replacement, his body agile and flexible with youth. She missed that youthfulness herself, and it had been some time since she had seen John that way. She enjoyed the view, feeling justified in doing so, for she knew her John would not mind.

John slotted the new ZPM quickly into place, pressing against its top until the console responded and the new ZPM began sinking into the console. Teyla's attention shifted entirely to watching it settle down and there was a pause. She ran her eyes worriedly over the console's displays, but then the new ZPM flared to life and the displays all lit up brighter. She let out a sigh of relief, which told her that she had not been as sure of success as she had believed herself to be.

The console began to light up further, the power now stable, and outside the living space around the console, she heard the crackle of arcing power between the two force fields.

"It supposed to do that?" John asked worriedly.

"Yes, very much so," she replied with a smile as she worked away at the console, bringing up checklists and confirming the status of all aspects of the containment field. "The power is stable and drawing faster from the universe." She smiled with satisfaction and looked up at John stood beside her. "It should hold now easily long enough to allow the universe to extinguish."

"How long is that gonna take?" He asked peering down at the console.

She looked back down at one display. "The prediction relates to the proportional life of the universe itself, time has no meaning in the nexus in relation to the outside world." John frowned at her. "Perhaps a hundred years?" She guessed so that he would be happy with a figure in his mind.

John nodded. "You gonna stay in here all that time?" He asked. There was doubt and concern in his voice though he tried to conceal it behind general interest. She smiled at the multitude of layers of John that she could interpret after a lifetime learning to understand him. She understood that he was worried about her.

She turned and looked up at him. He seemed taller in his youth, she mused.

"No, I have completed my mission now," she replied. He nodded again, but frowned, no doubt about to ask her where she was going to go now, and all the other interesting questions he could ask about that. "Besides, I am too old now for it to matter," she told him honestly.

He frowned deeper, a flash of real concern, but it slid behind his smile. "You look fine to me."

She grinned at him, reaching out to touch his arm, the pleasure of his company, so strangely young and old all at once, warming her heart.

"Do not worry about me, John. I have all I could never need here," she lied to him as she gestured to the small living space that had been her home for she knew not how long. Perhaps not that long after all.

"You're going to live here, by yourself?" He asked.

"Not for very long," she replied. "And you must return to your Atlantis," she said pushing against his warm arm slightly as she gestured past him to the console. "Take the old ZPM with you. It has very little power to assist the containment field, but it could provide enough power for Atlantis at some crucial point."

She almost winced at her turn of words, so blatantly revealing to him the importance the mostly drained ZPM would have at a point in Atlantis' future.

John glanced at her with narrowed eyes. She pushed at his arm and gestured towards the ZPM again. He held back for a moment and then relented, crouching down by the empty case and sliding the old ZPM into the space inside. He closed the lid and snapped the clips shut. He then stood it up, handle upwards, but didn't pick it up. He stood up and looked down at her. She knew the questions would arrive now and she wondered how she would answer them.

"Why don't you come back with me to Atlantis, Jennifer can check you over," he offered carefully.

She smiled at his kind offer. "There is nothing that she can tell that would be a surprise to me, John. Besides, I am very good for my age." He opened his mouth. "And don't you dare ask me how old I am," she told him sternly, but smiled through it.

"I would never," he said back quickly. "I don't even know how old you are back in Atlantis."

She pulled a face at him, letting him know that she would not be pulled into admitting anything about her past. He tried to look innocent in return, but his concerned look reappeared.

"You sure you're going to be alright here?" He asked her again.

She considered her reply, knowing that he would be determined to look after any one he cared for, even if it was an aged future version of his friend. "I will be fine," she told him. "And…there will be someone along soon," she replied, speaking her last remaining emotional wish out loud, and so ironically to him.

"Someone to take over here?" John asked, seeming happy to hear that.

"Yes," she lied to him, knowing it was an important lie to give him.

She knew that no one was needed now to watch over the nexus. There was enough power to see the new universe gone and then perhaps an Ancestor would end the nexus, or perhaps it would always exist here. Either way, it would be long after she was gone. But, for now, John would be happy only if he knew someone would be taking over from her, that someone would be here to help her in her aging years. She hoped that her own faith in that would hold true.

"Good," he replied.

A pause stretched out and she struggled to control the smile she felt tickling at her cheeks, for she could see him struggling at how to ask what he wanted to ask her. She struggled inwardly as well, for she wanted his company as long as possible, but at the same time, he should return to Atlantis before too much time out there had passed.

"You should get back home," she told him, hating that she was encouraging him away. She must think of it as sending him to her own past self, not pushing him away from her. The longer he remained with her, the more she wished she could sit with him, talk with him, lose herself in his humour again, love his company. She had missed him so much.

The grief swelled inside her and she struggled against it.

"You must make sure that Rodney does not try to enter the nexus again," she told him, working to distract herself away from the growing pain, a wound that had never healed when he had passed.

She moved around him, reaching for his arm to encourage him to walk with her back out to the area when he could safely leave the nexus. He stooped to pick up the ZPM case and turned with her, one elbow out for her to slide her hand around. She took the silent offer of support without thinking, for he had always done that even when she had been youthful. She had spent so much time with her hand tucked warmly around his elbow.

She swallowed against the tide of bittersweet memories.

"The light will already be fading back in Atlantis," she informed him as they walked out of the living area. "In no time the doorway will vanish again and you can rebuild the end of the pier," she continued.

"Then how did you get back here?" He asked as they walked at her slow, shuffling pace, but she knew John didn't mind the slow pace, for it would give him more time to press his questions.

"That does not matter right now," she replied.

John paused and she paused with him, glancing up at his frown. "How did you even get in here if you don't have the ATA gene?" He asked. "Or did we get that wrong?"

She was tempted to tell him the truth for a second, but she held back. She smiled apologetically up at him. "It does not matter, John. Do not worry about it."

He frowned down at her, one eyebrow raised challengingly.

She smiled at the look. She was not about to tell him how she had ended up with some of the ATA gene in her body, how one childbirth had almost taken her life, but how the mixing of her and her baby's blood had resulted in her body incorporating her child's natural ATA gene into her own system. She had not understood any of the confused biological explanations at the time, she had only known that it had fated her to be able to one day enter the nexus as John had told her she would. That and her new baby had been distraction enough.

She looked into John's eyes, the colour so familiar and so like his daughters' that Teyla smiled warmly up at him. She wished she could tell him all about the man he would become, but that was not her place. He was full of potential and his life was stretched out so far ahead of him. He had no idea how important, how magnificent he would be, how surprised at the course of his life he would be if she told him now. He would not believe half the things she could tell him of his life to come if she told him, and that thought brought some amusement into the grief she was feeling.

At seeing her smile, he narrowed his eyes at her again.

"You know, considering _where_ my birthmark is…?" He let the end of the question hang in the air between them. She was surprised that he had actually asked, though in typical John form, he hadn't _actually_ asked it directly.

She worked to control the grin that wanted to break out across her face, working at her innocent expression. "Yes?" She asked as if she hadn't understood what he had asked.

Silence stretched out as he studied her face with doubt and suspicion. "You don't know where it is," he decided, but she knew it was a ploy – she knew him far too well.

"If you say so," she replied, just stopping herself from adding 'dear' on the end of the sentence as they did when they teased each other.

He frowned at that, his attempt at learning the truth thwarted. She felt sorry for him in that moment. She turned towards him, both her hands on his arm as she looked up at him with a smile.

"All you need to worry about, John, is returning home. You saved Atlantis again, and you can go back to being so very happy to be back in Pegasus," she told him. "What I will tell you is that Atlantis will continue to be vitally important to both our home galaxies. You are doing a wonderful job and will continue to do so, and your life will be far from dull."

He gave her a half smile, pleased enough to hear the little she gave him. She squeezed his arm reassuringly. But, the time of his leaving was approaching and she found herself ready now for it, for he had to return to that glorious life, and she felt that what energy she had was being sapped by the grief at touching him again and knowing that he must now leave. He was her John, but at the same time, he was not.

"You must return home now, John," she told him, her voice shaking slightly, despite her attempts to control her emotions.

John didn't move yet though, instead he went very still and she looked up into his eyes as she struggled to control her feelings.

He studied her eyes closely. "Where you came from, I take it there isn't a version of me there anymore, or I would have come here myself."

She hadn't expected the question. She considered her answer, she could lie to him again, but she was tired of that. "I am of quite an age, John," she informed him with a smile.

He nodded at her answer, understanding her confirmation, but then he smiled at her again. "You still look fine to me," he told her again kindly.

She smiled up at the sentiment and finally she could no longer keep a hold of her tears and they pooled in her eyes. She gave in to her temptation and she reached up to touch his cheek one last time. He was surprised by the touch, but he didn't pull back as she touched her fingertips to his cheek lightly. His skin was smooth and youthful, full of so much life.

"You will have a wonderful life, John," she whispered to him, controlling her tears some more, and she dropped her hand again. "And you need to return to it."

She looked away to the wall of light close to where they stood. "The light will be fading out there and they will be worrying about your return," she told him as she took a breath, the ache in her chest fading somewhat.

She pushed against his arm again as finally she was at the point of sending him away, not to be seen again. He did as she asked and moved past her towards the wall, but he paused as her hand dropped away from his arm. She looked up into his eyes, seeing all those questions hovering there still, but she just smiled at him.

"Enjoy your life, John," she told him, hoping he would remember that and that it might reduce some of the weight he carried on his shoulders.

He nodded, understanding that she wasn't going to tell him anything else, and that it really was time to leave. He looked away to the wall of light and then back at her.

"Take care," he told her and she saw his concern for her as well as so much else.

She had no more words for him, her throat constricted with pain and joy at seeing him turn and move towards the light. She was losing him again, even though she knew she wasn't really, but all the grief of John's passing returned in that moment.

Her eyes filled with tears, blinding her. She hurriedly brushed and blinked them aside so that she would not miss any moment of his presence, even in leaving.

He paused just before the wall and looked back at her over his shoulder and she had composed herself enough to smile at him, and present a calm and strong front. He smiled back, but there was so much in his expression, so many questions, confusion and perhaps theories.

Then he stepped forward, the light engulfed him, and he was gone. Again.

She stood in place for long moments after he had gone, listening to the silence broken only by the crackle of the active containment field, and for the first time in almost all her life she felt truly exhausted. Her mission was complete, finally, but the emotion of it all was a torment in her heart.

She turned from the sparkle and arcing light and shuffled back towards her living space. Past the glowing highly active console and back to her chair.

She carefully turned and sat down, her body aching in almost every joint and at the sites of old injuries. She groaned as she settled herself down, adjusting her body into place, and finally she sat, her arms on the smoothed wooden arms of her chair and she took a deep breath. It was done.

John would be back in Atlantis, back to the questions and the reports that would have to be written. He would tell no one the entire truth, not even her for many years to come. She closed her eyes and replayed in her memory the moment when John had reappeared from the light filled room. He had seemed satisfied that the threat of the new universe had been contained, but there had been something quiet and unexpected about him. She understood now why, for in saying goodbye to him she had given him some perspective on his future, on his life perhaps.

She remembered that the light had begun shrinking even before his return, and that within an hour the light had faded almost to a pinprick, and as the day outside the city had arrived, bright and shining, the light had vanished leaving only an empty broken room in its wake.

Everything was done, and her exhaustion seemed to wash over her. She sighed heavily, surrendering to sleep as the elderly do so easily, and the sharp sounds of the nexus faded in and out of her dream.

She walked in the forest again, along the winding path towards the cabin settled among the trees. The sun was sinking behind the horizon and ahead she could smell the wood smoke and hear music on the air.

The stones of the path crunched under her boots as she followed the path and the cabin came into view, the windows glowing with light and warmth against the approaching night. She moved ahead faster, though enjoying the scent of the night air and the scratching of creatures in the trees around her.

As she reached the steps up to the doorway, she stooped to pull her feet free of her boots and she heard movement inside the door. John would have cooked dinner by now and after eating, they would sit down in front of the fire together.

She reached for the door handle and twisted it, pushing the door open as she stepped up with her socked feet onto the first step. She could feel his presence already, knowing that when she pushed the door open a little more he would be leaning into the hallway with some question about what she wanted to drink with her dinner or perhaps to ask how her walk had been.

She rose slightly from the dream at this point, the sharp crackle of energy outside in the nexus rousing her, but she did not entirely waken.

She did however see the glowing light forming before her, but it did not surprise her or draw her from her half dreaming state. As she pushed open the door to their cabin, her boots set aside, the warm light of their home surrounding her, she reached up through the air of the nexus towards the glowing light that was a presence that she had missed so very much, and whose return she had waited for with such faith and love.

She stepped forward into the hallway, towards his smile, and the door closed behind her, leaving the world outside and the wooden chair empty.

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TBConcluded


	8. Chapter 8

**Emerging Part 8**

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The night sky sparkled with stars, hidden only occasionally by the passing of a thin wispy cloud. The night was darker than last night when John had also stood alone looking out beyond the city. Tonight he wasn't looking out over the railings of a balcony, tonight he stood looking up and out from what had once been the inside of a room. Now, it was a floor and not much else.

John looked down at the floor, bizarrely intact, which he assumed was something to do with how the Ancients had constructed the containment field. It was clean and clear, stretching out to end in the tiny amount that remained of the far wall. He felt like he was stood on a roof rather than in what had once been a room, and he looked up to where the ceiling would have been, the nexus' light now absent and allowing a full view of the sky and horizon beyond.

He hoped that other Teyla was alright, that her replacement had turned up by now, not that time was the same in the nexus. He liked to think of Teyla living in there for eons compared to how time was passing here, that she would outlive them all.

He had spent most of the day working on his report, dancing around telling the truth and not lying too directly, especially to his team and most especially to Teyla. In the end, he had told Woolsey that the 'technician' inside the nexus was from possibly their future, which would also smooth the IOA's reaction, because even they understood that you mustn't miss with the timeline. It was a good excuse to use.

Of course, John had no idea if the excuse was true, because the other Teyla hadn't confirmed that she was from the future, but she hadn't denied it either. She had said a lot, but at the same time, she hadn't told him much. He had been thinking over what she had said all day. She had told him more about himself than anything else, and that had actually affected him more than if she had told him everything that was going to happen in the next ten years. Though, some insight into the football scores for the next ten years would have been useful.

Though she hadn't actually confirmed anything, he felt altered by what had happened. He had met duplicates before, but not someone like that version of Teyla. There had been something different about meeting her. She had looked at him with an openness in her eyes that even his Teyla's rarely showed. There had been no boundaries, she had comfortably touched his arm, leant her weight on his support, as if it was normal for her. He and his Teyla didn't share that. In fact, this morning when his Teyla had touched his arm he had been shocked by it, so unusual it had been. He liked to think that the other version of Teyla was a possible future version of his Teyla, but he had no way to back that up. He had liked the way she had smiled at him, leant on him and joked with him. Her eyes had been filled with wisdom and knowledge that he felt she had been tempted to tell him, but had held back.

And there had been the details she had known about him, and the uninhibited affection he had felt from her. He had been dwelling on that particularly throughout the day. She had known such secret personal things, that he couldn't imagine what situation would have resulted in his other version sharing those details with her. Well, he could think of one, and that implied a lot. He couldn't imagine baring his soul to someone in that detail unless they were a very intimate friend. He hadn't even shared his feelings on his return from Afghanistan with Nancy, though their marriage had been all but over at the time, but he knew he wouldn't have told her anyway. He hadn't told the shrink that had been assigned to him during the court-marshal either, or anyone since. But, he had/would tell Teyla.

And she knew about his birthmark.

It made a guy wonder.

He became aware of footsteps heading down the corridor behind him. He guessed it would be a scientist heading in to check that the nexus wasn't going to make a re-appearance. John would have preferred to remain here by himself, but it was late and he guessed he should use the interruption to head to bed.

As the footsteps neared, he pulled his gaze down from the stars, wondering why he was again thinking back to his days of camping in the forest when he was a kid. But, tonight he wasn't looking out at a forest of Earth trees, he was looking out at an alien world, a vast ocean and the distant dark horizon.

"Hello, John," Teyla said from behind him, shocking him for a moment.

He snapped his head round, unsure for a moment which version of her he might see, but it was the usual young version of her approaching him.

"I am sorry, I surprised you, I thought you had heard me approach," she apologised having seen his expression.

"I thought it was one of Rodney's team checking the room again," he explained. "Well, what's left of the room," he amended with a smile, working to be casual.

She entered the remains of the room and looked up and around with him.

It felt strange that she was here and he glanced down at his watch. Shouldn't she be all tucked up with Kanaan, Torren fast asleep across the room?

"Can't sleep?" He guessed.

She considered her answer as she reached his side. "I found myself reluctant to fall asleep tonight," she admitted surprising him.

He frowned at her. "You still sensing that other presence?" He asked.

"No, she replied. "I have not sensed it since the light, the nexus, disappeared completely from this room," she said as she looked around them at the missing walls.

"You worried you might sense it again if you fall asleep?" He wondered.

She frowned lightly, the moonlight shining across her beautiful youthful face. He studied her face whilst she was looking out at the night, comparing her face to the other version of her.

"I find myself reoccupied with what I dreamt last night," she told him. "I do not know why," she added as she looked up at him.

John broke his eyes from his close study of her features as she looked up at him. He hated not telling her and the others the truth about what had happened, but then hadn't it been a version of her who had asked him not to tell? He knew she would understand, and besides he might tell her one day still. He didn't really want to dwell on the subject with her, and because he was getting the impression that she was aware he hadn't told the whole story about what had happened in the nexus.

"It's not everyday that another universe tries to destroy us all," he joked weakly.

She smiled faintly at that, but her eyes remained on him, studying him and he knew for certain that she knew he had left out some important details. He couldn't quite keep eye contact with her, but he did the best he could.

"And are you alright? After your visit to the nexus?" She asked.

"Sure," he replied with a shrug. "Just another day in the Pegasus galaxy," he replied.

She nodded, glancing away and he hoped he hadn't accurately seen disappointment in her expression, but if it had been there, it had been fleeting. She looked back up at him with a lighter expression.

"Is there another reason then why you are still awake?" She asked.

John smiled at her, relieved that she wasn't going to pursue the subject of the nexus and the 'presence'. He looked out past her to the dark night. "Just happy to be back in Pegasus again, away from the suits and politics, just Atlantis on the ocean again."

He saw her brief look of surprise at his poetical language and she looked out at the moonlight with him, a smile on her lips.

"You prefer Atlantis here than on Earth?" She asked, although he knew she already knew the answer.

"It's where it's supposed to be," he replied quietly.

She held his gaze for a moment longer than normal, her smile widening and it was the exact same smile as he had received from that other version of her.

"Yes, it is," she agreed quietly into the moonlight.

He smiled back at her and then they both looked away from each other, back out into the night around them.

John tilted his head back again, looking up towards the tiny pinpoints of light high overhead.

Beside him, Teyla did the same, and the two of them stood in companionable silence, looking up at the heavens and the twinkling stars.

00000000  
THE END


End file.
